BV  600  . R45 

Rice,  Merton  Stacher,  1872 
The  expected  church 


\ 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

DUST  AND  DESTINY 


The  Expected  Church 


TWELVE  SERMONS 


S.  RICE 


Take  heed  therefore  unto  yourselves,  and  to 
all  the  flock  over  which  the  Holy  Ghost  hath 
made  you  overseers,  to  feed  the  church  of  God, 
which  he  hath  purchased  with  his  own  blood. 

— Paul 


THE  ABINGDON  PRESS 

NEW  YORK  CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1923,  by 
M.  S.  RICE 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


To 

THE  CONGREGATION 

OP  THE 

METROPOLITAN  METHODIST  EPISCOPAL  CHURCH 

DETROIT,  MICHIGAN 


TO  WHOM  THESE  SERMONS  WERE  DELIVERED,  AND  WHOSE 
ENTHUSIASM  FOR  THE  CHURCH  HAS  BEEN  UNFALTERINGLY 
SUPPORTED  BY  THEIR  SACRIFICIAL  ESPOUSAL  OF  THE 
CHURCH’S  GREAT  TASK,  THIS  VOLUME  IS  DEDICATED. 


1 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/expectedchurchtw00rice_0 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


Foreword .  9 

I.  The  Expected  Church .  11 

“Sir,  we  would  see  Jesus.” — John  12.21. 

II.  The  Church  of  Minimums .  28 

“Hitherto  have  ye  asked  nothing  in  my  name:  ask,  and  ye 
shall  receive,  that  your  joy  may  be  full.” — John  16.  24 . 

III.  The  Church’s  Unity .  47 

“Other  sheep  I  have,  which  are  not  of  this  fold:  them  also 
I  must  bring,  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice;  and  there  shall 
be  one  fold,  and  one  shepherd.” — John  10.  16. 

IV.  The  Twofold  Church .  67 

“I  indeed  baptize  you  with  water  unto  repentance:  but  he 
that  ccmeth  after  me  is  mightier  than  I,  whose  shoes  I  am 
not  worthy  to  bear:  he  shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy 
Ghost,  and  with  fire.” — Matthew  3.  11. 

V.  The  Church’s  Message .  86 

“As  much  as  in  me  is,  I  am  ready  to  preach  the  gospel.” — 
Romans  1.  15. 

VI.  The  Church’s  Program .  105 

“Thy  kingdom  come.” — Matthew  6.  10. 

VII.  The  Church’s  Attraction .  120 

“Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts;  In  those  days  it  shall  come 
to  pass,  that  ten  men  shall  take  hold,  out  of  all  languages  of 
the  nations,  even  shall  take  hold  of  the  skirt  of  him  that  is  a 
Jew,  saying.  We  will  go  with  you:  for  we  have  heard  that 
God  is  with  you.” — Zechariah  8.  23. 

VIII.  The  Church  an  Opportunity .  136 

“Feed  the  church  of  God,  which  he  hath  purchased  with  his 
own  blood.” — Acts  20.  28. 

IX.  The  Church  for  To-day .  150 

“No  man  putteth  a  piece  of  new  garment  upon  an  old;  if 
otherwise,  then  both  the  new  maketh  a  rent,  and  the  piece 
that  was  taken  out  of  the  new  agreeth  not  with  the  old.” — 

Luke  5.36. 


8 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 


X.  The  Church  for  the  City .  164 

"Arise,  and  go  into  the  city,  and  it  shall  be  told’  thee  what 
thou  must  do.” — Acts  9.  6. 

XI.  The  Church  and  Childhood .  180 

"And  Jesus  called  a  little  child  unto  him,  and  set  him  in  the 
midst  of  them.” — Matthew  18.  2. 

XII.  Can  the  Church  Save  the  World? _ 201 


"Go  ye  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing  them  in  the 
name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of  the  Holy  Ghost: 
teaching  them  to  observe  all  things,  whatsoever  I  have  com¬ 
manded  you:  and,  lo,  I  am  with  you  alway,  even  unto  the 
end  of  the  world.” — Matthew  28.  19,  20. 


FOREWORD 


There  is  so  much  in  a  sermon  that  is  not  said, 
and  hence  which  cannot  accompany  the  printed 
page  that  essays  to  bear  a  sermon  away  from 
the  platform  of  its  actual  delivery,  to  the  eyes 
of  readers  who  must  read  only  the  words  that 
are  printed,  that  the  preacher  cannot  but  feel 
great  concern  whenever  he  dares  risk  his  ser¬ 
mon  to  the  rigid  judgment  of  cold  type. 

These  twelve  sermons  were  delivered,  not  in  a 
series,  but  in  the  ordinary  course  of  the  preach¬ 
er’s  pulpit  efforts.  They  were  designed  to  pre¬ 
sent  the  ever-changing  appeal  of  the  church  that 
we  love  to  those  who  love  it,  in  order  that  its 
call  might  not  only  be  heard,  but  heeded  in  the 
passion  for  its  great  work.  Such  consecration 
can  only  justify  itself  in  the  conduct,  in  these 
commanding  days,  of  those  who  have  espoused 
the  cause  of  Him  whose  we  are  and  whom  we 
serve. 

M.  S.  R. 

Metropolitan  Church, 

Detroit,  1922. 


I 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 

“Sir,  we  would  see  Jesus.” — John  12.  21. 

The  phrase  “The  Expected  Church/’  which  I 
use  to  title  this  sermon,  was  the  caption  of  an 
unusually  interesting  and  thought-creating  edi¬ 
torial  in  one  of  the  religious  journals  of  our 
country  some  time  since.  It  was  based  upon, 
and  doubtless  prompted  by,  a  remark  the  editor 
heard  from  the  lips  of  a  prominent  attorney  in 
one  of  our  larger  cities.  Some  men  seated  at  a 
club  were  engaged  in  discussion  of  the  common 
matters  of  interest  in  the  day’s  thought  and 
business,  and  of  course,  brought  themselves 
square  up  to  the  problem  of  what  could  be  done 
to  change  things  that  were  into  things  that 
should  be.  The  lawyer  finally  declared,  as  the 
discussion  of  that  particular  day  was  breaking 
up,  that  there  was  profound  significance  in  the 
fact  that  before  every  problematic  situation  that 
arises  to-day  there  seems  to  be  a  general  convic¬ 
tion  that  the  church  should  do  something  about 
it.  He  said,  “Gentlemen,  we  seem  to  close  every 
discussion  we  have,  upon  whatsoever  problem 
we  consider,  with  the  same  question,  ‘What  is 

11 


12 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


the  church  going  to  do  about  it?’  ”  That  was 
the  remark  that  caught  the  editor’s  attention, 
and  he  went  away  profoundly  impressed  with 
the  great  meaning  of  such  a  fact  and  the  sure 
judgment  such  a  fact  presents  before  the  church 
to-day.  The  world  has  come  to  expect  from  the 
church  a  sure  leadership  in  every  great  move¬ 
ment  among  men  that  makes  for  progress  in 
everything  of  righteousness.  The  gist  of  the 
editorial  was  something  like  this:  “It  is  a  ter¬ 
rific  thing  for  the  church  to  be  expected.  Its 
duty  is  serious  enough  when  it  is  thrusting  itself 
upon  a  world  that  does  not  want  it.  But  when 
the  world  is  wanting  it,  and  waiting  for  it,  and 
actually  expecting  it,  then  the  responsibility 
should  make  the  church  quake.  If  it  fails  then, 
it  squanders  opportunity,  and  trades  an  offered 
respect  for  an  earned  contempt.  It  not  only  dis¬ 
appoints  God  but  it  likewise  betrays  humanity. 
The  reward  for  what  the  church  already  has 
done  is  this :  it  is  expected  to  do  more.”  All  that 
may  not  be  just  the  way  the  editorial  was 
phrased,  but  the  argument  is  there,  and  to  my 
mind  it  has  proven  one  of  the  most  searching 
ideas  to  reveal  present-day  duties,  that  has 
ever  been  handed  to  me;  and  with  it  now  I  pro¬ 
pose  a  frank  discussion  of  what  I  am  convinced 
is  the  most  complimentary  fact  that  has  yet  been 
paid  to  the  churches’  position  in  the  world. 

We  are  now  the  most  expected  institution  on 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


13 


earth.  And  these  are  hard  days,  brim  full  of 
call  to  daring,  that  runs  straight  into  genuine 
sacrifice  on  every  hand.  It  may  seem  trite 
and  commonplace  now  to  say  there  never  was  a 
day  so  significant  in  judgment  as  this.  Every 
generation,  I  presume,  has  said  it.  In  a  way  there 
never  has  been  a  more  important  period  in  the 
world  than  the  one  that  is  always  on  hand ;  for 
if  it  is  not  doing  things  that  shake  the  centuries, 
it  is  making  vital  way  to  the  day  that  will  do 
them.  But  enough  has  been  shaken  before  us  and 
about  us  all  now,  to  startle  even  the  dullest  of 
us  to  the  conviction  that  we  are  living  in  the 
very  midst  of  a  whole-world  crisis.  And  in  the 
day  when  falterings  of  men’s  plans  and  hopes 
have  made  criticism  easy  and  bitter  against  every 
institution  that  has  carried  any  professions  of 
help,  we  have  heard  often  that  Christianity  has 
failed,  and  men  have  imagined  they  were  making 
ready  her  sepulcher  again.  But  just  now,  with 
the  smoke  of  conflict  lifting  a  bit  from  the  low 
places  of  the  struggle,  and  just  as  the  staggering 
world  is  once  more  catching  step  for  its  com¬ 
pelled  journey  onward,  we  are  seeing  as  we 
never  have  seen  it  before,  and  we  are  hearing  as 
we  have  never  heard  it  before,  that  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ  must  take  measure  now  before 
expectation. 

In  the  days  when  we  have  had  to  struggle  and 
wait  for  mere  recognition  in  the  world,  when 


14 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


we  have  had  to  pay  the  price  of  genuine  heroics 
merely  to  gain  standing-room,  there  could  be  but 
small  responsibility  upon  us  for  the  conditions 
amid  which  we  had  mere  foot-room.  The  history 
of  the  church  thus  far  has  been  largely  a  fight 
for  toleration.  We  have  been  fascinated  in  the 
stories  of  the  martyrs  and  pioneers  and  mission¬ 
aries  who  have  pushed  out  into  the  very  ends  of 
the  world  to  pre-empt  a  place.  But  an  expectant 
world  now  has  become  a  divine  challenge.  The 
world  is  worn  out  from  its  long  and  unsuccessful 
struggle  with  evil,  which  very  struggle  it  has 
made  because  men  saw  what  evil  meant  in  the 
light  of  the  message  we  preach.  It  turns  now  to 
the  church  and  expectantly  awaits  from  it  a 
leadership  compatible  with  its  claims.  I  believe 
this  is  the  very  greatest  compliment  that  has  yet 
been  won  by  Christianity. 

He  must  indeed  be  a  dull  reader  of  modern 
progress  who  has  followed  the  history  men  have 
been  making  in  philanthropy  and  reforms,  in  in¬ 
dustrial  tendencies,  and  in  political  democracy, 
and  failed  to  recognize  that  easily  the  chief  acces¬ 
sion  of  moral  force  which  all  these  movements 
have  received  has  come  from  the  church.  Things 
which  only  a  short-gone  yesterday  were  under¬ 
taken  only  as  church  philanthropy  and  benevo¬ 
lence,  have  now  become  accepted  appeals  for 
public  taxes,  and  found  place  as  activities  of  the 
state.  I  am  sure  this  is  the  reason  for  much  of 


THE  EXPECTED  CHUECH 


15 


the  popular  expectation  now  upon  us.  The 
church  has  wholly  changed  its  attitude  toward 
the  world,  or,  much  better  might  I  say,  the  world 
has  discovered  its  new  rights  in  the  church.  It 
is  no  longer  a  mere  refuge  from  the  world,  but 
rather  it  is  a  training  place  for  the  world.  The 
story  of  real  navigation  cannot  be  written 
around  the  sheltered  shores  of  a  harbor  of  refuge. 
I  believe  in  such  a  harbor,  but  I  believe  likewise 
in  the  ship  that  can  advance  through  the  storm. 
There  is  to  me  something  infinitely  more  inspir¬ 
ing  to  be  told  that  I  can  be  endowed  with  a 
strength  great  enough  to  meet  and  fight  out  a 
storm  than  to  be  told  where  I  can  go  for  shelter.  I 
believe  it  is  in  one  of  Doctor  Peabody’s  books  that 
I  found  this  sentence,  and  I  have  carried  it  much 
just  to  refresh  my  soul  to  service:  “The  evidence 
of  Christian  discipleship  is  not  ecclesiastical  nor 
doctrinal.  It  is  ethical,  social,  political,  indus¬ 
trial,  human.  The  Christian  religion  does  not 
occupy  a  separated,  even  though  it  be  an  elevated 
plateau  of  life,  but  it  descends  like  a  fertilizing 
stream  to  the  world,  needy  below.”  With  that 
must  go  likewise  the  full  liability  it  implies.  I 
stood  once  with  a  company  of  people  through  a 
long  tragedy  which  was  enacted  before  our  help¬ 
less  eyes,  and  which  hurled  condemnation  upon 
our  weak  hands  for  hours  and  hours.  The  leap¬ 
ing  mad  sea  was  crashing  ships  on  many  shores. 
Several  we  had  seen  come  limping  into  harbor, 


16 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


and  reports  were  coming  fast  of  many  that  were 
lost,  as  the  storm  increased  and  raged  for  three 
days  and  nights.  We  saw  the  Mataafa  trying 
for  harbor,  and  unable  to  make  it.  She  was 
crashed  against  the  rocks  and  broken  to  pieces 
before  our  helplessness.  The  waves  were  run¬ 
ning  higher  than  the  ship’s  masts,  and  were 
lashed  to  terror  by  the  sweeping  blizzard.  We 
walked  the  shore  and  condemned  our  weakness. 
We  built  tires  when  darkness  fell,  and  carried 
fuel  the  whole  night  long  that  we  might  let  the 
men  know,  if  any  be  alive  on  that  hard  battered 
hull,  that  we  were  at  least  there.  The  men  of  the 
life  crew  were  mercilessly  criticized.  The  fury 
of  the  storm  was  no  excuse.  Their  boat  was 
hurled  back  at  them  when  they  sought  to  launch 
it,  as  though  the  sea  did  not  mean  to  tolerate  any 
meddling  with  its  feast  of  fury.  The  life-line 
fell  helpless  in  the  waves,  and  was  broken  by  the 
ice.  But  men  would  not  accept  all  this  as  an 
excuse  for  the  life  crew.  “What  are  life  savers 
for/’  they  insisted,  “if  not  for  times  when 
storms  rage?  We  didn’t  equip  them  for  a  calm ! 
We  rigged  their  station  for  storm.  Anybody 
can  take  an  old  skiff  and  save  men  in  a  calm.” 
Thus  talked  the  men  who,  furious  at  their  own 
impotency  because  they  knew  their  fellow  men 
were  dying  right  before  them,  would  not  brook 
excuse  from  those  whose  business  it  was  to  save. 
They  even  said  the  crew  should  have  sacrificed 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


17 


themselves  in  the  determined  endeavor  to  do 
what  they  were  called  to  do.  I  tried  to  defend 
them  with  the  idea  that  it  was  certain  death  for 
the  whole  crew  if  they  launched  out  there,  and 
men  answered  me  quickly,  with  these  words, 
“How  far  short  of  death  are  life-savers  supposed 
to  stop?”  That  is  exactly  the  spirit  which  flies 
to  quick  words  about  the  church  to-day.  We 
are  an  expected  church.  It  is  the  price  we  must 
pay  for  the  high  profession  of  divine  relationship 
we  have  made.  The  Bible  is  written  full  of 
heroic  phrases  which  cluster  around  the  daring 
life  necessary  to  be  lived  by  those  who  take  up 
the  task  of  our  religion.  The  calls  sound  like 
blasts  of  trumpets  for  battle.  We  who  stand 
committed  to  the  program  of  Christianity  in  this 
world  must  recognize  that  every  element  of  the 
quietist  has  been  driven  from  our  conduct.  The 
kingdom  of  heavbn  is  for  the  strong  hands  that 
can  take  it.  To  him,  and  to  him  only,  that  over- 
cometh  and  endureth  to  the  end  are  promises 
made.  The  world  is  thoroughly  justified  in 
drawing  all  this  squarely  across  us  in  judgment. 
Our  Bible  has  in  fact  offered  them  the  judgment 
already.  The  plan  of  our  great  conflict  has  been 
sternly  written  in  virile  phrases  here.  “Fight 
the  fight”;  “Run  the  straight  race”;  “Make 
straight  His  paths” ;  “Lay  down  your  lives.”  We 
are  an  expected  people.  Ours  is  an  expected 
church. 


18 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


The  church  can  i)oint  to  no  greater  compli¬ 
ment  that  it  has  won  from  the  world  in  all  its 
history  than  this.  Hard  though  it  be  for  us  to 
fully  meet  it,  we  are  nevertheless  duty  bound  as 
Christians  to  throw  ourselves  into  the  task  be¬ 
fore  us,  and,  if  need  be,  sacrifice  to  the  extreme. 
In  fact,  the  path  leading  to  sacrifice  is  much 
more  clearly  defined  than  that  leading  to  ease. 
We  must  be  unfalteringly  ready  to  stake  our 
lives  in  loyalty.  Our  judgment  is  of  life.  Our 
mere  age  in  the  world  is  no  basis  for  boasting. 
Because  the  church  is  old  is  no  sure  argument 
of  its  security.  There  are  old  falsehoods  in  the 
world.  Age  is  no  basis  for  pride  for  those  who 
have  hard  work  to  do.  There  must  be  other  con¬ 
fidence.  Rausehenbusch  has  no  keener  word  any¬ 
where  in  all  his  many  keen  observations  about 
religion  than  this:  “No  religion  gains  by  the 
lapse  of  time;  it  only  loses.  Unless  new  storms 
pass  over  it  and  cleanse  it,  it  will  be  stifled  in  its 
own  dry  foliage.  Men  seem  so  afraid  of  religious 
vagaries,  and  so  little  afraid  of  religious  stagna¬ 
tion.  Yet  the  religion  of  Jesus  has  much  less  to 
fear  from  sitting  down  to  meat  with  publicans" 
and  sinners  than  from  that  graver  danger  shown 
and  so  often  condemned  by  Jesus — the  immacu¬ 
late  isolation  of  the  Pharisees.  The  Church  of 
Jesus  Christ  will  take  care  of  itself  if  mixed 
into  the  three  measures  of  meal ;  but  the  fate  of 
leaven  that  is  kept  to  itself  is  to  sour  hopelessly. 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


19 


If  tlie  church  confines  itself  to  theology  and  the 
Bible,  and  refuses  its  larger  mission  to  human¬ 
ity,  its  theology  will  gradually  become  mythol¬ 
ogy,  and  its  Bible  a  closed  book.” 

There  can  be  no  question  in  any  open  mind 
that  reads  intelligently  the  news  of  the  world  to¬ 
day,  and  meditates  upon  its  wars  and  plans  and 
quarrels,  that  this  difficult  day  of  ours  is  ser¬ 
iously  afflicted  with  principles  which  are  antag¬ 
onistic  to  the  fundamental  principles  of  Chris¬ 
tianity.  There  are  many — and  I  am  inclined  to 
believe  a  growing  number  just  now — who,  on 
account  of  the  difficulty  thus  indicated,  declare 
it  is  so  hard  to  lead  a  really  Christian  life  that 
they  will  not  try  to  do  so.  The  church  is  bound 
to  speak  boldly  in  our  day.  We  have  always 
used  the  term  “the  world,”  meaning  society  at 
large,  as  an  expression  for  evil,  and  have  ex¬ 
pressed  the  hope  that  some  great  victorious  day 
this  evil  world  will  have  to  give  place  to  the  true 
human  society  in  which  the  spirit  of  Christ  will 
be  supreme.  For  many  foolish  centuries  those 
who  imagined  they  were  to  live  real  holy  lives 
knew  no  possible  way  to  do  so  but  to  separate 
themselves  from  the  world,  and,  hiding  in  the 
barren  loneness  of  their  own  isolation,  sought 
there  to  build  up  what  they  chose  to  call  holi¬ 
ness.  The  monk  deserted  the  evil  world,  but  de¬ 
pended  upon  someone  from  the  evil  deserted 
world,  to  bring  him  his  food.  They  showed  me  a 


20 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


huge  pillar  in  a  far  country  once,  on  which,  the 
guide  declared  with  suppressed  feeling,  an  old 
“pillar  saint”  had  lived  for  thirty  years.  I  asked 
what  he  was  doing  up  there,  and  the  guide  told 
me  he  was  being  holy,  and  I  went  a  bit  farther 
with  my  same  question,  and  said,  “What  if  he 
was  holy  up  there?”  If  I  had  been  running  the 
commissary  I  would  have  stopped  the  provisions 
from  an  unholy  world  being  hoisted  to  a  false 
idea  of  holiness  there,  just  to  see  how  soon  that 
separated  holiness  would  come  down  and  help 
the  rest  of  us.  They  took  me  to  a  desolate  dun¬ 
geon  once  and  showed  me  where  a  so-called  holy 
man  of  old  had  lived  for  many  years  in  ab¬ 
solute  seclusion  of  his  own  shut-in  piety.  After 
my  guide  had  recited  the  hollow  story,  I  troubled 
him  a  bit  by  asking,  “What’s  the  use  of  being 
holy  in  a  hole  anyhow?”  What  we  want  is  holy 
men  and  women  on  the  streets,  in  the  markets, 
in  society,  everywhere  where  men  and  women 
have  to  live,  and  work,  and  achieve,  and  suffer, 
and  die.  Thank  God  the  unholy  principle  of  an 
isolated  holiness  has  been  shaken  off  our  religion. 
The  expecting  world  that  has  heard  our  claims 
has,  in  its  appreciated  need,  crowded  up,  and 
broken  down  the  walls  of  the  monastery,  and 
demanded  service.  Modern  life  withholds  sup¬ 
port  from  the  religion  that  fulfills  itself  in  idle 
seclusion,  and  with  a  rugged  practical  expecta¬ 
tion  of  real  vital  results  comes  asking  the  church 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


21 


to  right  the  things  that  are  wrong.  Truth  can¬ 
not  be  tolerant.  It  cannot  be  truth  without  an 
uncompromising  stand.  The  church  must  change 
a  wrong  world.  Righteousness  cannot  be  toler¬ 
ant  of  unrighteousness.  Whenever  it  endeavors 
so  to  do  it  surrenders  its  holiness  and  its  mission. 

When  I  bring  myself  to  look  straight  at  the 
conditions  of  the  life  of  our  day ;  when  I  see  with 
what  eternal  right  the  movement  of  the  age  to 
which  I  speak  is  burdened;  when  I  lift  my  eyes 
to  look  upon  the  men  and  women  to  whom  I  am 
privileged  to  speak;  and  when  I  try,  as  I  surely 
have  many  times  tried,  to  calculate  what  results 
could  be  achieved  if  only  the  truth  were  pre¬ 
sented  so  that  it  would  compel  acceptance,  I  can 
scarce  endure  indecision  another  hour.  We,  who 
have  been  charged  with  living  in  this  the  most 
difficult  day  perhaps  the  world  has  ever  stag¬ 
gered  through!  We  who  must  march  straight 
now  into  problems  of  living  and  life  that  throb 
with  all  human  destiny  can  mean !  We  who  have 
dared  take  unto  ourselves  the  responsibility  of  a 
declared  faith  in  a  Christ,  whose  words,  if  they 
mean  anything,  must  mean  everything !  We  who 
must  be  judged  to-morrow  by  a  generation  that 
will  have  the  right  to  the  inheritance  of  every¬ 
thing  our  faithfulness  to-day  can  bring  to  them ! 
We  must  be  Christians  now.  We  must  not  hesi¬ 
tate  to  match  our  faith  against  all  the  difficulty 
the  day  knows.  I  know  these  are  hard  days. 


99 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


But  Jesus  Christ  never  came  to  deliver  mankind 
from  the  mere  ennui  of  aimlessness.  He  came 
knowing  we  were  in  a  storm,  but  knowing  also 
that  he  was  the  master  of  wind  and  wave.  I 
know  too  that  your  place  individually  is  beset 
with  great  difficulty.  But  Jesus  never  sought 
folks  to  do  his  business  who  were  cushioned  on 
ease  or  lulled  in  the  stupor  of  extravagance.  I 
know'  that  some  of  vou  have  been,  and  are  this 
very  moment  strugging  hard  over  mere  financial 
endeavor  to  hold  on  to  your  fortune.  But  I 
know'  too,  that  sometimes  Jesus  had  to  say  to 
some  wiio  sought  to  follow'  him,  that  he  could 
do  the  most  wfith  folks  wffiose  hands  had  been 
set  free  from  the  tyranny  of  their  property.  I 
knowr  this:  wre  have  God,  and  whatever  else  we 
may  lack  we  are  thus  expectantly  equipped  to 
get  our  lives  lived  unto  tangible  results.  The 
fields  are  ripe,  dead  ripe.  Trouble  is  in  the  social 
world.  Ennui  is  in  our  literature.  Disquiet  and 
unrest  are  sweeping  our  business  wrorld.  Nations 
are  in  turmoil.  Governments  that  only  a  very 
short  gone  yesterday  wrere  basking  in  a  careless 
confidence  that  their  foundations  were  secure, 
are  to-day  toppled  in  wrreck.  Revolution  is  run¬ 
ning  down  human  ranks  writh  easy  contagion. 
These  are  indeed  days  to  try  men’s  souls. 
Strenuous  days !  But,  after  all,  I  confess  I  would 
much  rather  die,  wracked  to  death  by  the  torture 
of  broken  health  that  broke  under  too  heaw  a 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


23 


load,  than  to  sleep  my  life  away  under  the  false 
influence  of  the  dangerous  anaesthetic  of  dawd¬ 
ling  ease.  0  men  and  women  of  this  big  accessible 
world  to-day,  that  looks  eagerly  every-whither 
for  help  and  deliverance  from  its  sorrows,  I 
salute  you,  and  congratulate  you  on  your  respon¬ 
sibility.  Men  and  women  of  the  Christian  Church, 
you  over  whose  lives  have  been  pronounced  the 
sacred  vows  of  the  great  God-raised  institu¬ 
tion  that  was  established  and  equipped  to 
match  the  resources  of  heaven  against  the  rav¬ 
ages  of  hell,  I  congratulate  you  this  day  upon 
the  eager  expectation  which  the  world  has  come 
now  to  have  in  you.  You  who  possess  trained 
personalities,  the  most  vital  asset  any  man  can 
ever  invest  in  the  world’s  life,  you  cannot  do 
more  with  your  life  than  to  bring  it  with  the 
enthusiasm  of  entire  consecration  to  bear  upon 
this  great  transitional  era  of  the  world  to  help 
it  into  a  more  dynamic  faith  in  Jesus  Christ. 
The  preemption  which  the  expectant  world  has 
made  on  the  church  is  the  compelling  call  to  the 
men  and  women  of  large  vision  in  such  an  age  as 
this,  not  to  merely  sit  to  enjoy  their  liberties  and 
lavish  ability  upon  themselves  for  ease,  but 
rather  to  spend  themselves  and  to  be  spent  in  the 
service  of  their  fellows.  My  heart  leaped  to  en¬ 
couragement  one  night,  at  the  close  of  an  address 
I  had  made  in  a  university.  I  saw  coming  to¬ 
ward  me  a  great  giant  of  a  fellow,  holding  out 


24 


THE  EXPECTED  CHUECH 


his  big  hand  and  saying,  “Do  you  know  me?”  I 
was  delighted  to  assure  him  that  I  did,  for  I 
am  not  real  safe  under  such  questioning.  I  had 
not  seen  him  for  fifteen  years,  but  I  could  never 
forget  that  face,  and  I  answered  as  I  grabbed  his 
hand,  “What  are  you  doing  here,  Charlie?”  He 
said  doggedly,  and  carrying  to  me  vividly  the 
memory  of  what  he  had  come  out  of,  “I  am  going 
to  school.”  A  good  many  years  ago  I  saw  that 
big  young  man  converted  one  evening  during  a 
meeting  I  was  holding  in  a  little  country  church. 
He  was  sitting  on  the  platform  just  at  my  feet, 
and  too  bashful  to  sit  thus  looking  at  an 
audience,  he  shielded  his  face  in  his  hands,  and 
sat  listening.  Suddenly,  utterly  unconscious  of 
all  others,  he  stood  straight  up,  and  turning  said 
to  me  as  his  face  beamed,  “I  see  it,”  and  then 
realizing  what  he  had  done,  sank  with  a  crash 
back  to  his  humble  seat  on  the  floor.  He  was 
twenty-four  years  of  age  then,  and  a  heroic  fel¬ 
low.  His  father  had  died  when  he  was  a  mere 
lad,  and  left  him  with  his  widowed  mother  and 
four  other  children.  They  lived  on  a  poor  sort 
of  a  hillside  farm,  which  was  made  doubly  diffi¬ 
cult  by  a  heavy  mortgage.  Charlie  was  a  stout 
lad,  and  had  to  bend  all  his  strength  to  do  the 
work  of  the  farm,  and  never  was  privileged 
another  day’s  schooling  after  his  father’s  death. 
But  he  never  complained.  He  devoted  himself 
to  the  task,  and  worked  that  mortgage  all  away, 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


25 


and  in  the  course  of  the  years  built  for  his  mother 
a  nice  new  house,  doing  all  the  work  with  his  own 
strong  hands.  The  mother’s  health  broke  and 
she  became  the  victim  of  a  long  lingering  disease 
that  seemed  to  feast  itself  on  increasing  the  diffi¬ 
culty  for  the  hero  boy.  But  Charlie  kept  the 
income  coming  in  so  he  could  care  for  the  added 
expenses,  and  finally  with  a  long  hospital  bill 
added  to  it  all,  he  made  his  devoted  way  to  the 
last  day  on  earth  of  his  beloved  mother,  and  sat 
beside  her  to  comfort  her  as  she  went  home  to 
God.  He  buried  her  tenderly  and  placed  above 
her  a  modest  marker  of  his  affection.  He  then  felt 
that  he  was  free  to  spend  the  remainder  of  his  life 
as  he  might  choose  to  do.  He  called  the  other 
children  together  and  told  them  there  was  a  cer¬ 
tain  amount  of  money  in  the  bank,  which  was  all 
theirs.  The  farm  was  free  of  all  debt,  and  in 
good  condition,  and  it  was  all  theirs.  He  then 
announced  that  with  only  enough  money  in  his 
pocket  to  pay  his  railroad  fare  to  the  university, 
he  was  going  to  begin  his  education.  He  was 
forty  years  of  age.  As  I  stood  there  holding  his 
hand  in  the  admiration  which  sprang  from  my 
remembrance  of  all  this  I  have  been  telling  you, 
he  gripped  my  palm  in  his  and  said,  “Mr.  Rice, 
it  will  take  me  five  years  more  to  finish  the  col¬ 
lege  work  I  have  laid  out  before  me,  but  all  I 
ask  is  a  chance  to  bring  my  life  up  to  the  very 
best  I  can  make  it,  and  devote  it  to  the  servi  e 


26 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


of  men  for  Christ’s  sake.”  Such  a  vision  as 
that  strong  son  of  service  had  of  the  debt  of  life 
is  what  the  world  is  expecting  from  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Church  to-day.  We  must  become  per¬ 
meated,  saturated  with  such  devotion,  and  when 
it  shall  be  so,  the  expectant  world  will  be  an¬ 
swered  with  the  expected  church.  The  unfal¬ 
tering  behavior  of  our  Lord  is  forever  drawn 
against  us  by  the  world,  as  the  pattern  an¬ 
nounced  in  our  Bible  as  the  example  for  our 
conduct.  The  whole  world  knows  Jesus  Christ 
was  brave.  It  has  no  toleration  for  cowardice 
in  conduct  of  those  who  name  his  name  and  pro¬ 
fess  to  follow  him.  Jesus  Christ  would  forever 
and  everywhere  stand  for  the  right.  Therefore 
all  hesitation  and  compromise  and  fear  of  those 
who  do  not  want  righteousness  so  earnestly  as 
to  be  willing  to  pay  the  full  price  for  it,  bear  no 
savor  of  those  who  follow  his  lead.  The  world 
knows  that  there  is  no  hope  for  its  redemption 
any  other  where  than  from  those  who  with  a 
fearlessness  of  self-sacrifice  will  take  up  the 
cross  and  actually  follow  Christ,  and  because  of 
this  conviction  it  expects  the  church.  The 
Church  of  Christ  is  here  on  duty.  There  is  no 
escape  for  us  who  expect  to  vindicate  our  es¬ 
pousal  of  it,  save  as  we  throw  our  lives  into  its 
task  with  all  our  might.  We  must  either  meet 
our  obligation  and  establish  the  principle  of  our 
religion  in  the  life  of  this  world  or  quit  and  get 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


27 


out  of  the  way.  The  church  cannot  be  a  mere 
tolerated  institution.  There  is  no  flavor  of  God 
in  such  an  attitude.  The  incumbent  obligation 
of  our  profession  compels  us  to  save  the  world. 
I  would  add  this,  therefore,  as  our  accepted  con¬ 
viction  which  must  overleap  the  expectation  of 
the  world  in  us;  we  are  obligated  by  our  creed, 
and  by  every  pulse  of  the  life  expressive  of  our 
real  truth,  to  the  largest  possible  service,  to 
the  cleanest  living,  to  the  best  for  man  and  God. 
The  church  has  full  right  in  every  one  of  its 
people,  a  right  which  must  respond  to  an  expect¬ 
ant  world,  but  a  right  which  is  founded  also  on 
its  own  deep  sense  of  obligation,  to  the  reflection 
of  the  very  best  there  is  for  mankind,  which 
means  love  and  heaven  and  God. 


II 


THE  CHURCH  OF  MINIMUMS 

“Hitherto  have  ye  asked  nothing  in  my  name:  ask,  and 
ye  shall  receive,  that  your  joy  may  be  full.” — John  16.  24. 

For  long  now  there  has  been  tolerated  about 
the  world  an  oft-indefinite  but  ever-persistent 
criticism  of  the  Christian  Church,  a  criticism 
which  presumes  upon  the  idea  as  axiomatic  and 
never  questions,  that  there  is  something  radi¬ 
cally  wrong  with  the  church.  It  has  been  an 
easy  morsel  to  pick  up  and  a  very  seemingly 
satisfactory  one  to  roll  under  the  t-ongue  of 
those  who  would  evade  the  claim  of  the  church 
on  them,  or  who  would,  in  shielding  their 
own  condemnation,  shuffle  the  blame  for  things 
as  they  are  upon  the  shoulders  of  someone  else. 
What’s  the  matter  with  the  church?  Men  ask  it, 
and  lift  their  waiting  ears  in  a  confidence  that 
such  a  question  will  die  away  in  its  own  echoes. 
The  attitude  has  generated  foolish  criticism,  as 
well  as  foolish  defense,  and  likewise  some  whole¬ 
some  criticism  and  some  wholesome  defense.  I 
followed  carefully  one  quite  representative 
symposium  on  the  general  theme,  wherein  men 
from  almost  every  branch  of  church  activity 

28 


THE  CHURCH  OF  MXNIMUMS 


29 


joined  in  the  common  endeavor  to  answer  the 
question,  which  was  thus  made  to  admit  that 
there  was  really  something  seriously  wrong  with 
the  church.  With  but  one  exception  the  argu¬ 
ment  was  made  around  the  admission.  That 
one  exception  argued  that  what  we  were  alarmed 
over  was  the  evidence  of  real  life  yet  in  the 
church,  which  was  making  heroic  effort  to  adjust 
our  activities  and  organizations  to  the  new 
phases  of  the  life  of  our  new  age.  The  very  spirit 
of  dissatisfaction  at  putting  new  wine  in  old  bot¬ 
tles  was  full  evidence,  thought  he,  that  we  are 
with  our  Lord  understanding  the  necessity  of 
new  bottles  for  the  new  wine  of  our  new  efforts. 
That  kind  of  argument  attracted  me,  and  I 
thought  his  article  was  much  the  better  article 
of  the  group,  doubtless  because  of  a  fact  we  all 
appreciate,  namely,  that  we  admire  the  one  who 
can  say  what  we  have  always  wished  we  could 
say,  but  had  never  just  found  the  right  words  in 
which  to  frame  it.  I  have  never  cared  to  train 
with  the  critics  of  the  church.  I  love  the  church 
with  all  my  heart,  and  I  believe  in  it  absolutely, 
and  have  a  confidence  in  it  which  is  founded 
upon  my  assurance  that  it  is  the  Church  of  God. 
I  rejoice  in  what  the  church  has  been  and  in 
what  it  is.  I  am  encouraged  when  I  read  of  what 
it  has  done  and  is  doing.  My  heart  leaps  within 
me  when  I  read  the  great  program  the  church 
has  had  the  courage  to  announce.  I  would  not 


i 


30 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


be  blind,  nor  do  I  believe  I  have  been,  to  the  evi¬ 
dences  of  the  imperfections,  nor  to  the  places 
of  repair  which  are  necessary.  I  try  always  to 
discover  the  points  of  need,  that  it  may  be  pos¬ 
sible  for  even  me,  the  least  among  her  servants, 
to  help  God’s  church  to  the  extent  of  my  ability, 
to  a  better  and  a  fuller  victory.  We  are  in  our 
whole  generation  endangered  from  what  Mr. 
Chesterton  has  called  in  one  of  his  essays  “the 
negative  spirit.’’  There  are  men  and  women 
whose  proof  of  scholarship  is  only  exposed  in 
mere  criticism.  They  have  come  forward  to  ask 
the  question,  “What  is  the  matter  with  the 
church?”  with  such  an  inflection  that  it  car¬ 
ries  its  own  answer.  In  fact,  the  question  of  it 
has  largely  been  dropped  now,  and  it  has  come 
to  be  rather  a  bold  manner  of  declaring  that  the 
church  is  well  beyond  repair;  its  task  is  undone, 
and  can  never  hope  to  be  done  by  the  church. 
Men  have  surrounded  the  church,  and  with  their 
implicating  questions  have  demanded  its  sur¬ 
render.  It  becomes  us  to  look  very  carefully  at 
much  of  the  criticism  of  the  church  to-day,  for  it 
savors  of  blind  destruction,  and  would  not  lead 
to  correction  of  wrongs  so  much  as  it  would  to 
the  destruction  of  our  finest  hopes.  In  Chester¬ 
ton’s  introduction  to  his  book  Heretics,  he  tells 
of  a  great  commotion  which  had  arisen  in  the 
street  over  a  lamp-post  which  some  influential 
folks  desired  to  tear  down.  During  the  discus- 


THE  CHURCH  OF  MINIMUMS  31 


sion,  or,  rather,  clamor,  which  attended  the  en¬ 
deavor,  there  came  by  a  gray-clad  monk  who 
was  asked  for  his  opinion  of  the  matter,  and  he 
answered  in  the  arid  manner  of  schoolmen :  “Let 
us,  first  of  all,  my  brethren,  consider  the  real 
value  of  light.  If  light  be  in  itself  good” — and 
he  got  no  further,  for  someone  knocked  him 
down  at  that  point,  and  the  crowd  rushed  upon 
the  lamp-post  and  pulled  it  down,  as  they  did  so 
congratulating  themselves  on  their  genuine  prac¬ 
ticability.  But  when  they  began  to  analyze  the 
many  various  reasons  the  crowd  had  for  pulling 
down  the  lamp-post,  they  found  themselves  in  a 
new  and  vigorous  war  in  the  night,  no  man 
knowing  whom  he  struck  in  the  dark;  and  the 
author  declared  that  gradually  but  inevitably 
there  came  over  that  crowd  the  conviction  that  it 
did  all  depend  on  the  philosophy  of  light,  only 
what  they  might  have  discussed  under  the  gas- 
lamp  that  may  not  have  been  perfect,  but  which 
gave  some  light,  they  now  must  discuss  in  the 
dark.  That  little  introductory  story  of  Chester¬ 
ton’s  has  long  interested  me.  Let  us  make  sure 
we  know  why  they  want  to  pull  the  lamp-post 
down.  For  the  real  thing  the  matter  with  the 
church  to  some  may  have  utterly  no  more  mean¬ 
ing  than  that  its  presence  is  a  menace  to  their 
ways  of  doing  business  here  on  earth. 

In  all  the  discussions  I  have  read  or  listened 
to  on  this  quite  common  subject,  the  most  sug- 


32 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


gestive  and  vital  one  to  me  was  a  short  editorial 
which  made  its  appearance  in  one  of  our  Ameri¬ 
can  religious  journals  some  time  since,  under  the 
title  I  have  chosen  for  this  sermon — “The  Church 
of  Minimums.”  The  editor  phrased,  in  that 
statement,  the  very  thing  I  have  been  trying  to 
phrase  for  long.  We  are  suffering  in  the  Church 
of  Christ  on  earth  to-day  from  the  fatal  habit 
of  the  minimum.  We  are  fearful  of  our  task. 
We  have  forever  looked  at  our  commission  with 
the  fearful  eyes  of  the  disciples  when  the  multi¬ 
tude  followed  them  away  from  the  ordinary 
sources  of  supply,  and,  sure  that  they  had  no 
other  resource,  they  begged  the  Master  to  send 
the  crowd  away.  It  has  been  often  the  experi¬ 
ence  of  Christ  with  his  church  that  he  has  been 
compelled  to  force  the  use  of  his  own  availabil¬ 
ity  upon  us,  by  feeding  the  impossible  crowd 
with  a  boy’s  lunch.  The  habit  of  the  minimum 
has  cramped  us.  Individuals  suffer  under  it. 
The  church  as  a  whole  has  allowed  its  story  to 
be  written  in  its  smalling  influence,  if  I  may  be 
allowed  a  word  of  my  own  make,  to  express  it. 
The  thraldom  of  this  tendencv  to  minimize  our 
expressions  in  the  world  as  Christians,  stands 
to-day  a  serious  affliction.  I  chafe  under  it. 
We  would  snatch  from  the  world  one  of  its  chief 
objections  to  our  whole  work  to-day,  if  we  would 
but  cut  our  patterns  larger.  Abraham  went  out 
not  knowing  whither  he  went,  and  one  of  the 


THE  CHURCH  OF  MINIMUMS  33 


very  great  goers  of  the  human  story  answered 
him  with  a  long,  long  echo  across  the  ages  when 
he  declared  a  man  never  went  so  far  nor  so  nobly 
as  he  did  when  he  went  not  knowing  whither  he 
went.  There  is  an  old,  very  old  story,  that  has 
been  used  so  much  for  illustration  that  its  illus¬ 
tration  is  about  worn  through,  of  the  young 
artist  Raphael,  who  in  a  crisis  of  his  artistic 
career  had  one  day  stepped  out  of  his  studio  and 
left  some  sketches  on  which  he  was  working. 
Angelo  came  in,  and  picking  up  some  sketching 
crayon  hurriedly  drew  around  each  sketch  a 
larger  outline,  and  wrote  under  it  all,  “Amplius” 
The  story  goes,  of  course,  that  this  was  what 
really  made  Raphael.  I  don’t  know  how  true  the 
story  is,  but  I  know  it  is  a  good,  and  that’s  the 
reason  it  is  now  a  well-worn  story.  The  princi¬ 
ple  contained  seems  to  be  the  need  of  the  day. 
We  do  not  await  Angelo’s  coming,  but  we  do 
await  the  long  too-small  Raphael  to  recognize 
the  larger  sketch  that  has  been  drawn  about  his 
cramped  endeavor.  Here  is  the  sketch  long  set 
before  us,  and  surely  it  should  blaze  in  daring 
proportions  before  the  church  to-day  that  stands 
faced  with  expectation  in  every  need  the  world 
develops.  “Is  not  this  the  fast  that  I  have 
chosen?  to  loose  the  bands  of  wickedness,  to  undo 
the  heavy  burdens,  and  to  let  the  oppressed  go 
free,  and  that  ye  break  every  yoke?  Is  it  not  to 
deal  thy  bread  to  the  hungry,  and  that  thou  bring 


34 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


the  poor  that  are  cast  out  to  thy  house?  when 
thou  seest  the  naked,  that  thou  cover  him;  and 
that  thou  hide  not  thyself  from  thine  own  flesh? 
Then  shall  thy  light  break  forth  as  the  morning, 
and  thine  health  shall  spring  forth  speedily :  and 
thy  righteousness  shall  go  before  thee ;  the  glory 
of  the  Lord  shall  be  thy  rereward.  .  .  .  And  if  thou 
draw  out  thy  soul  to  the  hungry,  and  satisfy  the 
afflicted  soul;  then  shall  thy  light  rise  in  ob¬ 
scurity,  and  thy  darkness  be  as  the  noon  day: 
and  the  Lord  shall  guide  thee  continually.  .  .  . 
And  they  that  shall  be  of  thee  shall  build  the 
old  waste  places :  thou  shall  raise  up  the  founda¬ 
tions  of  many  generations;  and  thou  shalt  be 
called,  The  repairer  of  the  breach,  The  restorer 
of  paths  to  dwell  in.”  That  sounds  like  “ amplius ” 
to  me.  It  is  from  the  clear,  pointed  pen  of 
Isaiah.  You  cannot  read  it  and  fail  to  feel  the 
enlargement  set  before  us  for  greater  things  than 
we  have  even  dared  announce  as  our  plans.  We 
are  straitened  in  our  purposes.  We  are  trying 
to  run  the  church  too  much  on  the  least  possible 
basis.  We  are  constantlv  accustomed  to  hear- 
ing  all  our  plans  discussed  on  the  minimum.  We 
are  impoverished  with  an  extravagant  economy. 
I  submit  that  it  does  not  savor  of  the  Church  of 
God.  We  cannot  expect  to  effectually  represent 
a  great  God  on  a  diminishing  basis. 

I  propose  now  to  make  divisional  use  for 
this  address  in  the  points  the  editor  made.  He 


THE  CHURCH  OF  MINIMUMS  35 


touched  a  most  essential  matter  before  us,  and 
one  which  I  am  sure  has  been  at  the  heart  of 
every  preacher  these  days,  when  he  said,  We  are 
suffering  to-day  from  the  minimum  habit  of  be¬ 
lief.  It  seems  to  be  the  accepted  fashion  of  our 
day  to  believe  just  as  little  as  possible.  There 
seems  to  be  a  quite  general  conviction  that  the 
church  should  come  very  close  to  the  world  in 
what  it  believes,  and  that  in  the  shading  over  of 
belief,  the  church  must  do  all  the  shading.  Don’t 
be  very  large  in  this  matter  of  belief!  All  this 
has  doubtless  had  strong  tendency  to  create  to¬ 
day  a  marked  carelessness  about  the  defined 
statements  of  the  eternal  truth  committed  to  our 
care.  It  has  come  to  be  a  common  question  to 
ask,  and  I  bought  a  book  titled  with  the  question, 
“Does  it  Matter  What  a  Man  Believes?”  It  is  a 

blood-letting  question,  and  the  secret  of  many 

* 

souls’  invalided  condition  to-day  lies  in  the  fact 
that  they  have  endeavored  to  keep  life  on  so 
lifeless  terms.  Our  religion  has  been  reduced 
to  meaningless  phrases  so  often.  I  am  calling 
rifyw,  in  a  day  that  is  under  the  strain  of  life  at 
the  highest  pressure  it  has  ever  known,  for  a 
religion  that  will  drink  largely  of  the  accessible 
truths  of  our  God.  “My  soul  panteth  after  thee, 
O  God!”  “As  the  hart  panteth  after  the  water- 
brooks,  so  panteth  my  soul  after  thee.”  This  is 
no  day  to  endeavor  to  believe  just  as  little  as  pos¬ 
sible  and  still  be  called  Christians.  Such  a 


36 


THE  EXPECTED  CHUECH 


measure  of  belief  may  keep  us  just  alive,  but 
these  are  poor  days  for  folks  to  meet  with  the 

i 

consciousness  that  all  their  strength  is  needed 
merely  to  keep  living.  The  maximum  of  belief  is 
what  gives  life  the  swing  of  triumph.  The  whole 
church  needs  to  breathe  largely  of  that  fact  to¬ 
day.  We  have  great  fundamentals  written  in 
our  Book  which  are  not  to  be  held  lightly;  in 
fact,  they  cannot  be  held  any  other  way  than 
heroically.  All  down  the  long  story  of  the  faith 
we  profess  has  been  written  the  fact  of  the  hero¬ 
ism  of  the  believers.  It  has  not  been  an  easy 
thing  to  come  on  down  the  story  of  history  and 
cling  to  our  faith.  The  darkest  corners  of  that 
story  have  been  lighted  with  the  tires  where 
burned  the  noble  men  and  women  who  held  faith 
above  life.  Lord  Bacon  has  onewhere  a  phrase 
that  interests  me,  in  which  he  speaks  of  “bed¬ 
ridden  truths.”  How  well  it  tells  the  story! 
Truths  that  are  ineffectually  realized.  Dr.  Wat- 
kinson  has  suggested  “a  sick  ward  for  impotent 
beliefs” — a  place  where  anaemic  sentiments  and 
paralytic  and  crippled  purposes  could  be  put  to 
bed.  We  are  troubled  in  the  whole  world’s  ap¬ 
preciation  of  Christianity  with  those  who  are 
lightly  termed,  “nominal  Christians.”  I  do  not 
know  what  a  nominal  Christian  is.  I  have  asked 
many  audiences  if  there  were  any  nominal  Chris¬ 
tians  present,  and  thus  far  I  have  not  had  one 
response.  But  the  diluted  idea  of  Christianity 


THE  CHURCH  OF  MINJMUMS  37 


has  gotten  such  hold  upon  many  that  it  has 
made  itself  seriously  noticeable.  Such  phantom 
belief  cannot  get  our  great  task  done.  When  I 
set  my  face  honestly  to  look  at  the  great  program 
that  is  drawn  before  us,  I  know  it  cannot  be 
done  without  great  faith  in  God.  There  are 
some  words  written  in  the  Bible  which  tell  of 
noble  souls  who  wrought  with  undeniable 
strength  for  the  cause,  “Who  through  faith 
subdued  kingdoms,  wrought  righteousness,  ob¬ 
tained  promises,  stopped  the  mouths  of  lions, 
quenched  the  violence  of  fire,  escaped  the  edge 
of  the  sword,  out  of  weakness  were  made  strong, 
waxed  valiant  in  fight,  turned  to  flight  the 
armies  of  the  aliens.”  That  sounds  like  a  church 
at  maximum.  That  is  what  belief  in  God  means. 
Faith,  conviction,  enthusiasm,  sacrifice,  heroism 
— the  victory  that  overcometh  self,  sin,  and  the 
world.  We  are  calling  for  a  profound  faith.  We 
need  now  a  belief  that  will  force  its  undisputed 
way  into  our  thought,  experience,  and  conduct; 
a  belief  that  will  command  our  understandings, 
and  kindle  all  our  powers  to  help  realize  its 
ideals.  We  must  believe  God,  and  have  the  cour¬ 
age  to  recognize  that  we  cannot  carry  the  word 
“minimum”  and  stay  with  Him.  There  is  no 
place  for  minimums  in  belief  in  an  omnipotent 
God.  If  we  believe  at  all,  we  believe.  We  can¬ 
not  forever  trim  such  belief  to  little  ideals.  Set 
as  we  are  to  the  most  overwhelming  task  that 


38 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


was  ever  intrusted  to  any  institution  on  earth, 
and  professing  as  we  do  an  allegiance  to  the  God 
of  it  all,  we  must  believe  largely  and  act  largely. 
That  means  maximum  faith  for  the  church  of 
maximum®,  and  that  is  the  Church  of  God. 

The  second  characteristic  minimum  of  to-day 
the  editor  noted  was  the  minimum  of  experience. 
He  declared  there  was  a  willingness  to  have  some 
Christian  experience,  but  a  great  care  that  it 
take  no  chances  at  being  overdone.  “Christ 
offers  his  disciples  a  divine  companionship,  a 
companionship  which  will  defeat  temptation, 
pull  sin  up  by  the  roots,  and  conquer  the  evil 
trends  of  character.  But  the  church  with  pain¬ 
ful  caution  seeks  only  so  much  of  that  compan¬ 
ionship  as  will  not  overdo  the  effect.  It  does 
not  desire  the  result  to  be  too  conspicuous.  It 
consents  to  be  good,  but  dreads  to  be  holy.”  Re¬ 
gardless  of  whatever  defense  any  of  us  may 
choose  to  make  against  such  a  statement,  the  fact 
remains  that  the  church  of  to-dav  is  painfully 
low  on  Christian  experience.  What  power  and 
Christian  motive  there  is  in  experience!  This 
is  a  serious  accusation  the  editor  has  brought 
against  us,  if  it  be  true,  that  we  are  trying  to 
discover  what  is  the  least  we  can  take  of  Christ 
in  experience  without  refusing  him  altogether. 
What  we  are  in  bold  need  of  now  is  a  willingness 
unto  abandon,  that  will  with  confident  heart 
accept  our  Lord's  mastery  in  life  with  all  the 


/ 


THE  CHURCH  OF  MINIMUMS  39 

consequences  it  may  involve.  We  are  offered  an 
experience  which,  will  not  falter  before  whatever 
need  this  day,  or  any  possible  day,  may  bring; 
an  experience  that  will  completely  save  us  from 
the  power  of  passion,  and  the  sirocco  of  selfish¬ 
ness,  and  will  effectually  empower  us  to  live 
positively  in  purity  and  in  service ;  an  experience 
that  will  not  desert  us  in  the  day  of  fiercest  temp¬ 
tation,  but  will  actually  in  that  day  furnish  us 
with  the  realization  of  that  promised  deliverance 
that  has  been  clearly  written  down  for  us  to 
believe  if  we  wrill  trust  him  in  every  temptation ; 
an  experience  that  will  stand  beside  us  with 
strong  arm  in  the  day  of  great  trouble  and  sor¬ 
row,  and  will  furnish  sure  consolation  to  our 
stricken  hearts.  Who  that  knows  men  and 
women  to-day  can  have  failed  to  appreciate  the 
fact  that  just  such  an  experience  is  what  the 
world  needs  now?  We  suffer  at  every  restraint 
that  is  ever  put  upon  genuine  Christian  experi¬ 
ence.  One  of  the  very  finest  and  most  impressive 
stories  that  was  told  along  the  lines  in  the  Great 
War  was  about  a  fine  young  Italian  soldier  who 
refused  to  desert  his  badly  wounded  lieutenant, 
but,  in  spite  of  all  his  efforts,  had  to  see  the 
officer  actually  die  in  his  arms.  He  threw  him¬ 
self  across  the  lifeless  bodv  and  cried  in  the  over- 

•/ 

Avhelming  loss  he  had  sustained  and  under  the 
impression  that  all  were  gone,  “Even  the  King 
has  gone  away.”  Just  then  he  was  roused  by  a 


40 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


hand  on  his  shoulder,  and  he  arose  and  stood  at 
attention.  “My  dear  boy,”  said  the  King,  “my 
car  has  gone,  but  the  King  is  still  with  you.”  The 
little  story  was  told  with  much  feeling  among  the 
soldiers,  and  carried  well  the  point  they  wished 
to  drive  deep  into  the  souls  of  tried  men.  But 
it  is  a  mere  lisping  of  the  great  fact  which  Jesus 
Christ,  divine  Companion  of  men  and  women 
and  little  children,  has  been  living  into  eloquence 
all  down  the  centuries.  The  King  is  not  gone; 
Life  cannot  drive  him  away,  Death  cannot  drive 
him  away.  The  experience  of  the  living,  ever¬ 
present  Saviour  of  men  is  the  privilege  of  us  all. 

Let  me  note  one  more  and  the  concluding  point 
the  editor  made.  We  are  suffering,  said  he,  from 
the  minimum  of  trust.  There  seems  to  be  a 
strange  feeling  about  among  men,  that  we  are 
actually  afraid  to  match  our  religion  against 
the  most  difficult  things  of  our  day.  There  may 
be  here  and  there  a  hard  case  to  whom  the  min¬ 
istry  of  Christianity  is  effectual,  but  somehow 
we  don’t  carry  a  positive  expectation  that  the 
hardest  cases  are  just  as  easy  to  our  professed 
allegiance  with  omnipotence  as  are  the  easier 
cases.  I  think  it  was  Phillips  Brooks  who  said 
onewhere,  that  he  could  not  just  calculate  what 
difficulty  might  mean  to  omnipotence.  If  he 
didn’t  say  that,  it  should  be  said,  so  I  will  say  it 
now.  Anyhow,  it  is  time  the  world  was  given 
the  full  experience  of  contact  with  a  church  that 


THE  CHURCH  OF  MINIMUMS  41 


actually  brings  trust  in  an  omnipotent  God  to 
the  task  in  hand.  Down  the  years  of  my  minis¬ 
try  comes  the  memory  of  a  most  distressing  case 
of  an  outspoken  sinner  who  lived  near  a  little 
country  church  where  I  was  a  young  pastor. 
The  man  hated  the  church,  and  could  not  toler¬ 
ate  its  services  as  he  knew  them,  and  the  very 
presence  of  a  modest  little  church  building  in  his 
neighborhood  was  a  continuous  distraction  to 
his  soul.  He  was  dreaded  as  a  terror  by  all  the 
church  people.  He  took  delight  in  doing  every¬ 
thing  he  could  do  to  make  church  services  hard. 
He  esteemed  it  his  high  duty  to  break  the  win¬ 
dows  out  of  that  little  church  with  painful  regu¬ 
larity.  One  day  to  emphasize  his  hatred  he  even 
broke  the  window  sashes,  and  made  the  repair 
bill  doubly  large.  Everyone  was  afraid  of  him. 
They  feared  to  make  complaint,  because  they 
knew  he  would  quickly  transfer  his  persecution 
to  a  personal  application.  When  I  came  into  the 
neighborhood  he  was  the  first  man  I  heard  about. 
The  folks  awaited  what  would  be  done  as  the 
introduction  for  a  change  of  preachers.  I  began 
a  revival  meeting,  and  one  day  asked  some  of  the 
brethren  if  anyone  had  ever  spoken  to  that  old 
man  about  religion.  They  were  all  dumfounded 
at  such  an  idea  ever  having  been  thought  of. 
“There  is  no  use  talking  about  him,”  was  the 
unanimous  verdict.  “The  Lord  may  graciously 
save  some  of  our  young  folks,”  but  for  him  there 


42 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


was  not.  even  a  far  dream  of  the  most  fanatical 
enthusiast  about  there  ever  cherished.  Well,  I 
proposed,  since  he  had  never  been  approached, 
that  we  try  our  trust  in  God  and  at  least  ask  him 
to  be  a  Christian.  I  confess  I  was  a  bit  timid 
the  day  my  proposition  had  cornered  me  and 
forced  me  to  give  it  a  trial.  I  drove  up  to  his 
farm  with  some  misgivings,  but  I  did  drive  up. 
I  found  the  old  barbed-wire  gate  was  down,  and 
without  getting  out  of  my  buggy  I  drove  in,  and 
saw  just  before  me,  sitting  under  a  tree,  and  all 
alone,  the  man  I  had  heard  so  much  of  and  whom 
I  could  not  fail  to  recognize,  though  I  had  never 
seen  him  before.  I  checked  my  horse  and  said, 
“Brother,  I  understand  your  little  girl  is  sick, 
and  I  wondered  if  there  was  anything  we  could 
do  that  might  be  of  help  or  comfort  to  any  of 
you.” 

He  looked  straight  at  me  and  said,  “Are  you 
the  new  preacher?” 

I  said:  “Well,  never  mind  that.  I  came  over 
to  see  if  there  was  any  service  we  might  render 
you.” 

He  was  very  fond  of  that  little  girl,  and  said 
at  once  and  in  most  cordial  manner,  “Won’t  you 
come  in  the  house?” 

I  need  not  here  continue  the  story.  I  will  only 
say  there  never  has  been  a  bill  for  broken  win¬ 
dows  at  that  little  country  church  since.  But 
it  is  so  easy  for  us  to  think  our  religion  may  be 


THE  CHURCH  OF  MINIMUMS 


43 


effectual  to  a  few  best-chosen  cases,  but  must  not 
be  ventured  on  the  hardest  cases  we  know.  We 
are  putting  our  reservations,  and  not  God’s  who¬ 
soever,  against  our  task.  No  wonder  we  hesitate. 
No  wonder  we  so  often  find  what  we  call  defeat 
when  we  dare  so  fearfully  with  the  great  weapon 
of  our  trust.  God  cannot  afford  to  give  victory  to 
any  endeavor  that  represents  him  so  small  to 
the  great  things  that  are  before  us.  Here  is  a 
wonderfully  vital  word  from  the  editorial  which 
has  inspired  this  address,  and  which  summary 
and  conclusion  I  have  carried  close  to  the  heart 
of  my  efforts  ever  since  I  read  it :  “If  we  believe 
a  little  about  Christ,  take  only  a  little  of  Christ, 
do  only  a  little  for  Christ,  and  rely  only  a  little 
on  Christ,  we  can  at  least  feel  shame  to  be  satis¬ 
fied  with  such  littles.”  It  is  time  the  world  was 
given  the  shock  of  a  church  upon  it,  and  ming¬ 
ling  in  all  its  life,  that  has  a  large  trust  in  an 
omnipotent  God.  We  are  not  here  asking  tolera¬ 
tion.  We  are  not  here  making  a  survey  of  wrorld 
problems.  We  are  here  to  save  the  world.  We 
have  been  equipped  of  God  for  the  task ;  we  need, 
therefore,  have  no  concern  as  to  the  resource¬ 
fulness  of  our  equipment.  We  only  need  to  see 
to  it  that  more  of  God  shall  be  in  all  our  en¬ 
deavors.  The  church  will  never  compel  the  con¬ 
fidence  of  the  world  in  her  work  while  she  is  con¬ 
tent  to  do  things  in  so  computed  and  mathemati¬ 
cal  and  logical  and  human  ways  as  have  an  easy 


44 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


expression,  among  ns  just  now.  Every  other 
institution  can  do  that.  Ordinary  bakeries  will 
take  contracts  to  feed  multitudes  when  there  is 
evident  plenty  of  material.  None  but  God  will 
dare  tell  the  crowd  to  sit  down  before  one  little 
lunch  basket.  Just  as  long  as  we  do  things 
along  the  ordinary  lines  of  human  calculations — 
and  there  are  many  things  we  are  to  do  thus — 
just  as  long  as  we  do  only  so,  we  must  accept 
our  rating  as  a  human  agency.  The  church 
faces  that  fact  in  the  verdict  of  the  whole  world 
to-day.  There  is  no  other  possible  line  before 
us,  if  we  would  keep  keenly  our  sense  of  God, 
than  to  attempt  that  which  makes  us  feel  through 
and  through  our  absolute  need  of  the  Almighty 
and  by  an  unfaltering  trust  in  him  see  it  accom¬ 
plished.  God  can  with  our  minimum  of  trust 
save  us  perhaps,  yet  so  as  by  fire.  But  all  that 
sounds  only  to  me  like  the  salvation  of  escape 
and  as  a  Christian  on  this  earth  I  cannot  meas¬ 
ure  my  salvation  so.  With  a  maximum  of  trust, 
and  a  daring  program  which  such  trust  would 
impose,  the  world  could  ere  this  have  been  saved. 
We  have  been  and  are  still  at  it,  trying  to  save 
the  world  on  a  minimum  of  endeavor,  and  while 
we  may  have  done  encouragingly  well  in  some 
lines  of  judgment,  I  still  contend  we  have  by  no 
means  been  getting  what  the  world  w  aits  to  see. 
How  many  times  the  question  has  come  leaping 
out  of  our  halting  endeavors  at  us  all:  Why, 


THE  CHURCH  OF  MINIMUMS 


45 


oh  whv  does  the  conquest  of  the  world  by  Christ 
halt  so  badly?  Why  have  we  not  long  ago  taken 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world  for  our  Christ?  If 
we  are  his  church,  why  have  we  not  seen  more 
outstanding  signs  of  his  power  among  us?  Then 
we  remember  what  we  have  brought  him.  Our 
minimums  stand  out.  The  world  needs  and 
awaits  a  church  with  God  manifest  in  partner¬ 
ship  with  its  maximum  ability.  We  have  sub¬ 
jected  the  Church  of  God  to  the  judgment  among 
men  founded  on  the  minimum  of  our  efforts  too 
long  already.  Any  other  than  infinite  patience 
and  love  would  have  turned  from  a  friendship 
fed  upon  desperation’s  measure,  long,  long  ago. 
The  times  are  indeed  ripe  for  a  larger  demon¬ 
stration  of  our  faith.  Let  us  hasten  to  take  up 
the  march  of  our  conquest  on  the  largest  meas¬ 
ure.  I  want  ever  in  my  religion  that  abounding 
confidence  and  that  daring  boldness  which  must 
be  the  outcome  of  the  fact  that  God  has  been 
received  into  the  fullest  measure  of  my  life.  I 
want  to  feel  that  I  have  really  brought  my 
maximum  for  investment.  We  cannot  hope  to 
save  the  world  with  a  religion  founded  on  our 
littlenesses.  It  would  not  be  fair  to  us.  It  would 
not  be  fair  to  the  world.  It  would  not  be  fair  to 
God.  Minimums  cannot  be  tolerated  in  the 
church  for  to-day.  The  beckon  of  this  difficult 
hour  is  for  strong  men  and  women.  It  is  the 
sublime  challenge  of  a  great  opportunity.  We 


46 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


must  not,  we  dare  not  fail.  No  business  this 
world  ever  offered  to  any  man  can  compare  in 
return  to  the  dividends  offered  by  the  Church  of 
God.  I  challenge  your  already  well-formed  con¬ 
victions  with  the  appeal  of  the  hour.  I  call  to  a 
big  privilege,  for  big  souls,  to  do  big  things. 
My  soul  leaps  at  the  idea.  We  must  not  repre¬ 
sent  a  great  God  on  a  diminishing  basis  in  such  a 
day  as  this.  May  God  help  us  to  drive  all  our 
minimums  from  the  task.  We  must  have  maxi- 
mums  of  belief,  experience,  service,  and  trust, 
and  maximums  will  warrant  maximums,  and, 
God  with  us,  will  save  the  world. 


Ill 


THE  CHURCH’S  UNITY 

“Other  sheep  I  have,  which  are  not  of  this  fold:  them 
also  I  must  bring,  and  they  shall  hear  my  voice,  and  there 
shall  be  one  fold,  and  one  shepherd.” — John  10.  16. 

The  constituency  of  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  has  long  been  one  of  the  points  of  conten¬ 
tion  by  folks  who  would  arrogate  to  themselves 
an  exclusive  right  to  definition.  The  contention 
has  not  arisen  because  our  Lord  was  not  clear 
in  his  intentions.  It  has  always  arisen  because 
the  church  has  not  been  able  to  climb  up  to  the 
full-visioned  conception  of  the  real  relationship 
of  the  common  race  of  mankind.  Throughout 
the  ministry  of  our  Lord  and  Master,  in  his  well- 
planned  training  of  the  chosen  twelve,  and  even 
after  his  departure  from  his  incarnated  presence 
here;  all  through  the  effort  of  Jesus  in  the  train¬ 
ing  of  his  church  and  people,  he  has  sought  to 
present  an  enlarged  conception  of  the  Kingdom. 
He  came  the  universal  Man  among  the  Jews. 
The  very  thought  is  collision.  The  Jew  could 
not  be  universal.  He  was  the  outstanding  type 
of  the  clannish  idea.  He  liked  it  too.  He  was 
a  Jew  first,  he  was  also  intentioned  of  being  a 
Jew  last.  He  was  a  Jew.  His  whole  nations 

47 


48 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


history  had  been  written  in  exclusive  terms  of 
separation.  His  separation  from  other  races  had 
been  the  essential  principle  of  his  development, 
and  was  used  of  God  to  save  the  Jews  to  God  a 
separate  and  peculiar  people.  All  this  had  been 
faithfully  taught  from  generation  to  generation 
among  them  in  proud  confidence  of  God’s  fav¬ 
oritism,  and  brought  with  it  a  most  bigoted  and 
narrow  individual  as  well  as  race.  The  Jew 
having  been  so  long  a  special  object  of  separa¬ 
tion  and  care,  had  forgotten  to  interpret  the  fact 
as  being  a  process  of  preparation  for  service, 
and  instead,  had  come  to  glory  in  the  fact  with 
an  easily  understood  pride,  as  an  eloquent  and 
not-to-be-overlooked  evidence  of  God’s  special 
favor  to  him.  The  Jews  were  God’s  chosen 
people,  not  his  favorites.  That  is  an  outstand¬ 
ing  difference.  They  were  chosen,  in  order  to 
drill  into  them  a  condition  of  life  and  ideals, 
with  which  they  might  be  used  for  the  great  pur¬ 
pose  of  the  true  religion  among  men.  Because 
the  Jew  failed  utterly  to  rightly  interpret  his 
choosing,  there  resulted  in  his  character  that 
nature  which  has  been  most  difficult  to  remove, 
and  which  has  made  him  a  whole  world’s  prob¬ 
lem  ever  since.  He  was  chosen  to  serve;  he 
thought  he  was  chosen  to  receive.  He  was  chosen 
to  become  chief  minister  to  the  world ;  he  mistook 
his  choosing  as  favoritism.  The  hardest  thing 
Jesus  Christ  had  to  do  in  the  training  of  his 


THE  CHURCH’S  UNITY 


49 


disciples,  and,  indeed,  a  thing  he  never  did  suc¬ 
ceed  during  his  human  life  in  doing  for  them, 
was  to  remove  their  narrow  conceptions  of  God’s 
kingdom  and  bring  them  to  see  that  in  God’s 
sight  mankind  is  the  aim  and  goal,  rather  than 
any  one  lesser  race  among  the  great  whole. 
Judaism  completely  missed  the  mission  of  our 
Lord  as  expression  of  God’s  love,  and  when 
they  found  that  he  had  not  come  to  restore  theii* 
distinct  nationality,  and  plant  their  racial  ban¬ 
ner  on  a  new  exalted  place,  and  erect  a  high 
throne  on  which  a  Jew  would  sit  consummate 
among  all  the  sons  of  men,  then  they  were  dis¬ 
appointed  in  him,  and  grieved  in  their  long-re¬ 
strained  expectation,  and  were  ready  to  crucify 
him  and  number  him  also  among  their  enemies. 

As  I  study  as  written  here  in  the  Book,  and 
hear  voiced  in  the  early  story  of  the  Church,  the 
choking  influence  of  the  selfishness  characteris¬ 
tic  of  these  special  agents  of  our  Lord’s  work, 
I  am  made  to  feel  that  the  great  work  thus  far 
largely  essential  to  the  progress  of  the  King¬ 
dom  has  been  the  expansion  of  the  hearts  of  its 
devotees.  One  of  the  most  outstanding  reasons, 
perhaps  the  most  outstanding  of  all  the  reasons, 
why  the  church  has  not  spread  in  its  great  work 
into  the  world’s  life  more  than  it  has,  lies  in  the 
fact  that  we,  as  members  of  it,  have  never  in 
proper  manner  appreciated  what  it  is  really 
trying  to  do.  The  Kingdom  of  God  was  not 


50 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


established  on  this  earth  for  Jews.  Conditions 
did,  however,  make  it  essential  to  establish  it 
through  them.  The  church  has  not  been  set  on 
this  earth  for  any  class  or  race,  or  color,  or 
nation  of  people.  It  was  planted  here  by  the 
infinite  love  of  our  God  for  the  purpose  of  reach¬ 
ing  and  saving  the  whole  human  race. 

Let  us  now,  before  proceeding  to  the  applica¬ 
tion  of  our  text  to  the  thesis  we  have  chosen, 
look  to  a  correction  in  the  wording  of  it,  in  order 
that  we  may  clearly  distinguish  the  contention 
of  Jesus,  whose  words  we  are  using.  I  read 
the  text  in  the  familiar  phrases  of  the  Authorized 
Version.  It  has  been  so  long  and  so  well  known 
that  the  seemingly  slight  change  in  it,  in  the 
Revised  Version,  lacks  a  startle  that  will  im¬ 
press  the  fact  of  the  great  difference  carried. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  unfortunate  passages 
of  all  the  sayings  of  Jesus  in  the  old  version, 
which,  because  of  the  mistranslation  of  one  word, 
has  fastened  into  the  memory  of  a  multitude  the 
basis  for  an  argument  which  never  did  exist  in 
the  passage  as  rendered  by  our  Lord.  The 
trouble  in  the  verse  hinges  on  the  mistaken 
rendering  of  an  important  word,  and  the  whole 
bearing  of  the  passage  changes  in  application 
when  the  correct  translation  is  put  there.  In 
the  first  part  of  the  verse  the  word  “fold” 
appears  and  is  the  correct  translation  of  the 
Greek  word  avXjj  (affile).  “Other  sheep  have  I 


THE  CHURCH’S  UNITY 


51 


which  are  not  of  this  fold.”  The  last  part  of 
the  verse  has  again  made  use  of  the  word  “fold.” 
This  word  is  incorrectly  translated  from  an  en¬ 
tirely  different  Greek  word  notyvii  (poimne), 
which  word  never  means  fold,  or  inclosure,  but 
always  and  everywhere  means  “flock.”  All  the 
revised  versions  carry  this  significant  change. 
But  people  read  the  revised  versions  but  little, 
and  upon  first  sight  the  meaning  of  the  change 
makes  no  impress  upon  their  attention.  This, 
however,  is  one  of  the  most  significant  correc¬ 
tions,  in  my  judgment,  in  the  entire  revision  of 
the  Bible.  It  is  fundamental.  The  idea  of  Jesus 
was  misrepresented  in  the  old  version.  There 
is  a  distinct  difference  in  the  meaning  of  the 
words  “flock”  and  “fold”  as  words  descriptive  of 
the  character  of  Christ’s  church.  Founded  on 
this  false  translation  of  “fold”  the  Roman 
Catholic  interpretation  has  built  up  a  false  argu¬ 
ment  for  the  unity  of  the  church  as  they  have 
chosen  to  define  unity.  But  Jesus,  in  this  rarely 
beautiful  passage,  was  saying  nothing  of  that 
thing.  There  may  be  many  folds.  “Other  sheep 
I  have  which  are  not  of  this  fold.”  But  there  is 
just  one  flock.  There  may  be  many  denomina¬ 
tions.  That  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the 
fact  of  the  common  flock.  This  is  the  doctrine 
of  Protestantism,  and  to  insist  upon  an  organic 
and  outward  unity  as  essential  to  the  reality  of 
the  church  is  simply  romanizing  in  its  principle. 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


52 


Let  us  now,  with  this  significant  correction, 
study  the  plain  application  it  has  to  the  real 
meaning  of  our  task  and  to  the  interpretation 
of  the  church  in  the  world.  God  has  patiently 
waited,  across  long  and  oft-trying  centuries,  for 
mankind  to  realize  the  true  conception  of  man. 
Everywhere  in  the  ministry  and  words  of  Jesus 
we  are  given  the  argument  that  the  kingdom  of 
God  is  not  exclusive  but  inclusive.  There  could 
never  be  a  program  of  world  intention  launched 
on  an  exclusive  claim.  The  very  idea  is  self-con¬ 
tradictory.  Upon  the  rigid  characters  of  his  Jew¬ 
ish  disciples,  whose  convictions  and  ideals  had 
been  laid  by  long  exclusive  conceptions,  Jesus 
was  compelled  to  spend  much  careful  effort,  to 
bring  them  to  appreciate  the  human  vision.  God 
has  always  had  trouble  with  little  men.  It  is 
hard  to  get  great  human  facts  into  a  race  clan¬ 
nishness.  The  curse  of  the  olden  times  was  nar¬ 
rowness.  The  hindering  curse  of  the  present  day 
is  still  narrowness.  We  have  not  yet  gotten  up 
to  the  complete  acceptance  of  all  the  conse¬ 
quences  of  the  ideals  Jesus  came  to  establish.  I 
incline  to  believe  it  was  exactly  for  this  reason 
that  Jesus  chose  his  disciples  almost  entirely 
from  among  the  commoner  people  of  his  day. 
Had  he  called  them  from  among  the  rich  or  the 
learned  classes,  the  poor  and  ignorant  wrould 
have  been  discouraged.  When  he  sought  them 
from  among  the  poorer  and  more  humble  walks 


THE  CHUKCH’S  UNITY 


53 


of  life,  and  placed  thus  there  the  dignity  of 
religion’s  real  call,  then  all  those  above  could 
not  doubt  their  ability  too,  and  all  the  poor 
besides  took  Courage.  Thus  humble  men  were 
called  to  the  constructive  work  of  the  inclusive 
Kingdom,  and  the  measure  of  that  inclusion  was 
their  message. 

You  cannot  read  the  hopeful  call  of  this  great 
gospel,  and  fail  to  appreciate  that  the  figures 
used  here  to  apply  it  are  always  inclusive  figures, 
and  never  exclusive.  The  fishermen  who  were 
called  from  a  tiny  inland  lake  and  sent  out  to 
catch  men  for  God  were  given  a  line  to  fling  as 
deep  as  humanity  could  ever  be  found.  There  is 
an  essential  change  in  the  idea  of  the  Kingdom 
as  expressed  in  the  Old  Testament  when  we 
find  it  as  used  in  the  New  Testament.  The  old 
idea  was  in  a  manner  beautiful,  and  had  some¬ 
what  of  comfort  connected  with  it,  providing 
we  found  ourselves  included.  It  was  not,  how¬ 
ever,  large  enough.  Its  comfort  was  like  unto 
that,  which  seeks  to  be  satisfied,  when  a  great 
storm  sweeps,  and  when  terror  howls  at  the 
corners  of  the  casements,  and  we  pull  our  chairs 
close  to  the  fireplace  and  congratulate  ourselves 
that  we  are  not  out.  That  is  a  small  comfort, 
but  is  one  way  comfortable.  That  was  a  close 
locked-door  idea  permitted  to  be  used  by  the 
prophets,  who  conveyed  the  Word  to  an  exclusive 
nation.  The  Old  Testament  is  largely  concerned 


54 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


witli  the  guarding  and  defending  of  a  people. 
They  must  be  walled  round.  They  must  know 
the  security  of  the  fold.  The  term  commonly 
used  was  interpreted  thus,  and  those  officially 
to  care  for  them  were  set  to  ministries  of  exclu¬ 
sion.  The  preferred  confidence  of  a  chosen  people 
was  built  upon  that  national  sense.  Outsiders 
were  outsiders,  and  must  wear  the  fierce  names 
which  enemies  of  the  flock  were  known  by — 
wolves,  bears,  dogs.  The  self-complacent  secur¬ 
ity  of  the  favored  fold  made  all  those  who  found 
themselves  included  therein  believe  that  all  they 
had  to  do,  in  order  to  insure  eternal  safety,  was 
to  remain  carefully  within  that  fold,  and  that 
was  their  great  ideal.  There  wras  no  great  burn¬ 
ing  sense  of  a  mission  to  the  world.  Their  idea 
was  to  make  sure  their  owrn  safety.  The  Jewr 
was  no  missionary.  He  is  no  missionary.  His 
hope  was  the  fold.  The  salvation  of  a  church 
that  was  merely  waiting  for  the  Messiah  to  come 
was  to  be  most  surely  found  in  carefully  re¬ 
maining  within  itself.  Let  this  be  a  warning 
fact,  clear  before  a  modern  effort  that  -insists, 
these  great  expectant  days  of  ours,  on  keeping 
again  its  eyes  fixed  on  the  clouds  of  heaven 
w  hence  he  has  gone,  and  needs  again  an  angel 
to  startle  them  from  the  stagnant  peril  of  gazing, 
“Ye  men  of  Galilee,  w  hy  stand  ye  gazing  up  into 
the  heavens  ?”  The  New  Testament  has  brought 
us  a  new'  church  w  hich  is  to  be  saved  in  its  mis- 


THE  CHURCH’S  UNITY 


sion.  The  defense  it  feels  is  the  performance  of 
its  task.  The  exclusiveness  of  olden  times  must 
be  broken  from,  and  the  work  must  be  done  on 
inclusive  lines,  and  Jesus  says,  “There  are  many 
folds,  but  one  flock.”  Great  inclusive  opened 
doors  are  these  words  now.  They  open  out  with 
invitation  and  full  room  for  all  men.  The  text 
we  read  marks  the  very  point  of  the  change  of 
the  idea.  Otherwhere  in  his  words  Jesus 
changes  the  whole  figure.  He  makes  onewhere 
the  figure  of  the  world  as  a  great  field  to  be 
sown  and  calls  his  disciples  to  go  and  scatter 
the  seed.  He  tells  us  again  that  his  Kingdom 
will  find  a  likeness  in  the  idea  of  the  world  as 
a  great  sea  full  of  fish,  and  his  disciples  are 
fishermen.  Again  he  says  his  Kingdom  is  like 
unto  a  great  feast,  and  the  giver  of  the  feast  is 
solicitous  even  unto  compulsion  for  enough 
guests  to  fill  his  house.  You  cannot  fail  to  see 
the  entire  change  of  symbolism  for  the  church. 
The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  must  face  frankly 
the  fact  of  its  commission.  It  is  not  called  now 
to  find  a  salvation  of  mere  refuge.  It  is  com¬ 
missioned  to  experience  the  salvation  of  service. 
In  the  light  now  of  this  complete  change  of  pur¬ 
pose  let  us  note  the  meaning  of  two  terms  of 
our  text. 

1.  There  shall  be  one  flock.  The  reason  I  have 
approached  this  seemingly  simple  fundamental 
word  with  the  carefully  laid  distinction  I  have 


56 


THE  EXPECTED  CHUKCH 


made  is  that  it  is  the  rock  on  which  much  mis¬ 
taken  emphasis  has  been  laid  with  another  idea. 
Church  union,  on  the  smaller  lines  of  the 
obliteration  of  all  denominationalism,  has  tried 
for  a  false  defense  here.  This  was  not  said  to 
so  small  ideals.  This  is  a  plain  foundational 
statement  of  our  Lord  about  the  tremendous  and 
common  work  of  Christ  on  human  character. 
There  has  been  left  to  the  world  a  beautifully 
effective  testimony  in  the  eloquent  case  of  David 
Mendel,  a  Jew  and  direct  relative  of  the  great 
musician  Mendelssohn.  He  experienced  a  re¬ 
markable  and  transforming  conversion  to  Chris¬ 
tianity,  and  in  a  most  impressive  and  reverential 
manner  gave  up  the  name  he  had  received  by 
inheritance  across  the  years,  and  compounded 
for  himself  a  new  name  from  the  Greek  language, 
and  called  himself  henceforth  “Neander,”  mean¬ 
ing  a  new  man.  Jesus  Christ  has  been  creating 
a  new  race  in  this  world.  Not  that  he  has 
intended,  nor  that  it  would  be  desirable,  for  the 
real  distinctions  of  personality  or  nationality  to 
be  abolished.  We  will  still  have  many  different 
men,  but  one  Common  Man.  I  am  sure  I  can 
detect  the  evidences  of  that  much  to  be  desired 
condition  taking  shape  now,  even  amid  the  fogs 
and  gloom  and  smoke  and  sorrow  of  this  great 
war-trampled  day  of  ours.  Christians  of  all 
races,  lands,  conditions  are  to  form  this  one 
great  common  flock,  for  they  are  all  in  Christ. 


THE  CHURCH’S  UNITY 


57 


One  flock,  where  we  cannot  be  Jew,  Gentile, 
Greek,  barbarian,  bond  or  free,  for  we  are  all  one 
in  him.  The  particular  and  outstanding  enmity 
between  the  Jew  and  the  Gentile,  which  was 
nursed  by  the  Jew  as  though  it  were  a  virtue,  is 
keenly  representative  of  the  great  divisioning 
facts  that  have  been  forever  breaking  mankind 
asunder.  It  was  with  full  insight  of  his  divine 
vision  that  Jesus  set  himself  squarely  against 
that  thing.  Such  divisions  run  themselves  deep 
into  the  foundations  of  life.  It  was  no  little 
temporary  quarrel  our  Lord  concerned  himself 
with.  The  Jew,  with  his  emphasis  upon  his  own 
divinely  chosen  distinction,  carried  a  proud 
head  toward  Gentile  society.  The  real  grace 
that  could  meet  that  condition  and  conquer  it 
was  such  as  must  carry  the  healing  for  a  world. 
And  here  stands  our  Lord  in  this  perfectly 
simple  and  impressive  manner  telling  us  the 
great  truth  that  shall  yet  tie  a  whole  world 
together.  Those  men  to  whom  he  then  spoke 
did  not  understand  it.  We  have  come  on,  almost 
two  thousand  years,  stumbling  much,  but  mak¬ 
ing  some  progress,  and  still  we  do  not  grasp  the 
truth.  But  I  do  believe,  as  never  before,  the 
church  is  catching  step  with  this  great  human 
truth.  We  will  be  marching  triumphantly  with 
it  yet.  The  people  of  all  the  earth  are  stirring 
themselves  to  a  realization  of  brotherhood.  It 
is  but  dimly  outlined  as  yet  in  their  ideals,  but, 


58 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


though  slowly,  nevertheless  surely,  mankind  is 
feeling  its  earnest  way  toward  a  genuine  unity. 
The  great  common  note  is  getting  its  tone  to 
the  whole  world’s  ear.  From  the  dense  forests 
of  the  untouched  continent  of  Africa,  and  the 
level  steppes  of  the  bleak  Russian  frontier,  and 
the  crowding  sorrows  of  eastern  Asia’s  millions, 
and  the  blood-red  fields  of  Europe’s  war-tram¬ 
pled  nations,  and  the  busy  marts  of  our  own 
America’s  eager  energy — somehow,  I  say,  some¬ 
how  this  great  human  race  is  staggering  on; 
sometimes  running,  sometimes  on  broken  knees 
of  stumbling  purpose,  but  forever  coming  on. 
We  are  making  our  common  way  to  the  light 
of  human  unity,  and  Jesus  Christ,  Son  of  God, 
Son  of  man,  stands  ever  just  before  us  pointing 
out  the  way.  There  shall  be  one  flock!  There 
shall  be  one  flock!  May  God  make  those  of  us 
who  have  dared  the  name  of  Christian  worthy 
to  wear  that  name  to-day.  This  is  the  greatest 
day  the  world  has  ever  known,  in  which  to  pro¬ 
fess  such  a  faith.  It  is  a  day  when  men  realize 
keenly  the  things  that  are  really  hindering  the 
progress  of  brotherhood.  It  is  not  our  work  to 
make  poor  men  rich,  nor  rich  men  poor.  Our 
Master  refused  most  forcefully  one  day  to  have 
anything  to  do  with  even  the  dividing  of  an  in¬ 
heritance,  which  was  brought  to  him  in  appeal. 
That  is  not  the  matter  in  which  wTe  are  to  con¬ 
cern  ourselves  as  an  activity  of  our  religion.  But 


THE  CHURCH’S  UNITY 


59 


it  is  a  very  essential  thing  that  such  matters  as 
these  shall  make  no  difference  whatever  in  our 
judgment  of  and  dealings  with  men.  There  are 
many  things  doubtless  that  we  can  do  which  will 
offer  the  ministry  of  kindly  interest.  Most 
surely,  whatever  the  church  can  do  in  every 
ministry  of  real  service,  in  Christ’s  name  it  must 
do.  The  Son  of  God  is  our  peace,  and  in  our 
hearts  we  must  be  the  genuine  sons  of  peace. 
The  secret  of  the  only  true  union  lies  in  the 
meeting  together  of  all  the  sons  of  men  in  our 
common  good.  His  church  is  commissioned  and 
destined  to  become  the  home  of  the  human 
family,  the  universal  liberator,  instructor,  and 
reconciler  of  all  the  nations.  Some  great  glad 
day  there  will  come  the  time  when  this  divine 
Master  shall  sit  enthroned  in  the  loyal  worship 
of  the  federated  people  of  all  the  earth,  and  there 
shall  be  one  flock. 

2.  My  second  observation  is,  “There  shall  be 
one  Shepherd.”  The  Shepherd  himself  says  so. 
There  is  at  once  in  this  figure  the  advanced  idea 
which  is  to  be  characteristic  of  Christ’s  church 
as  a  flock  rather  than  as  a  fold.  I  was  reading 
somewhere  recently  a  little  note  of  a  traveler  in 
Palestine  who  became  interested  in  what  he 
thought  was  a  peculiar  construction  of  the  com¬ 
mon  sheepfolds  in  the  neighborhood  of  Hebron. 
The  folds  were  made  in  the  form  of  a  letter  C. 
They  were  crudely  made  often,  as  a  mere  encir- 


60 


THE  EXPECTED  CHUKCH 


cling  wall,  not  joined  together  arid  haying  no 
door  or  gate.  The  traveler*  asked  in  a  simple 
inquisitive  manner  of  an  old  shepherd  he  met 
one  day  beside  the  fold,  why  they  never  have  any 
doors  ;  and  was  answered  quickly  and  naturally 
and  without  any  quotation  marks,  nor  knowl¬ 
edge  that  he  was  quoting,  “I  am  the  door.”  He 
meant  by  his  simple  reply,  which  to  all  of  us 
to-day  who  treasure  his  words,  as  specially 
precious  and  meaningful  from  the  sayings  of  the 
Great  Shepherd,  just  what  he  said  and  which 
our  Lord  was  himself  doubtless  quoting  in  figure. 
He  meant  that  literally  he  did  at  night  wrap  his 
simple  blanket  about  his  shoulders  and  actually 
lie  down  in  that  open  space  of  the  wall  to  guard 
it.  He,  the  shepherd,  was  the  door — the  door 
both  of  defense  and  privilege.  He  preserved 
both  their  going  out  and  their  coming  in,  and 
that  too  is  scriptural.  The  Shepherd  that  doors 
that  fold  in  defense  writes  in  the  Book  also  that 
he  leadeth  them  out.  There  cannot  be  known 
the  real  meaning  of  a  shepherd  at  the  entrance 
of  the  fold.  The  mere  security  idea  is  not  the 
full  interpretation  he  deserves.  The  church  has 
suffered  across  much  misunderstood  history, 
when  it  has  been  made  as  ideal  in  its  defense. 
That  was  the  idea  which  grew  monasticism.  It 
built  high  walls  and  hid  itself  inside  its  own  life, 
in  order  to  be  saved.  All  this  was  in  no  manner 
a  fair  display  of  Christian  purpose.  The  com- 


THE  CHURCH’S  UNITY 


61 


mission  of  the  church  was  not  in  that  idea. 
There  could  be  no  thought  of  a  commission  when 
the  one  dominant  endeavor  was  to  shut  itself 
in  with  itself.  All  such  ideals  of  devotional  life 
as  showed  themselves  in  the  many  manifestations 
of  monasticism  were  nothing  other  than  pious 
posing  self-indulgence.  Jesus  Christ  has  never 
set  the  translation  of  his  shepherding  care 
around  seclusive  defense.  His  followers  were 
to  go  forth  into  the  world,  there  to  find  their 
safety  in  the  presence  of  their  attending  Shep¬ 
herd.  A  church  established  in  a  world  where 
evil  has  an  ever  aggressive  program,  cannot 
justify  itself  in  a  mere  exercise  of  its  own  safety. 
There  must  come  upon  the  church  which  is  to 
save  the  world  from  evil  the  sense  of  a  security 
which  will  boldly  leave  the  walls  of  the  fold,  and 
venture  anywhere  in  the  confidence  of  the  real 
presence  of  the  Shepherd.  Surely,  this  great 
crusading  day  of  ours,  when  ideas  are  fighting 
everywhere  for  regnancy  among  men,  and  when 
the  transitional  era  is  offering  the  opportunity 
of  real  impress  to  every  really  vital  ideal,  this 
is  no  time  for  the  church  of  the  living  God  to 
put  its  ideal  before  venturing,  crusading  men 
and  nations  in  terms  of  a  sheepfold.  We  await, 
rather,  the  appreciation  of  the  stride  of  a  cru¬ 
sade  in  the  leadership  of  One  who  can  both  lead 
and  guard.  Is  it  not  an  inspiring  phrase  this 
great  leader  of  ours  has  set  for  himself  long  ago, 


62 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


to  come  to  its  crusading  interpretation  in  this 
day,  when  the  brotherhood  of  man  is  pounding 
out  its  hard  but  determined  way  to  appreciation 
in  all  the  world,  the  phrase  of  kindly,  aggressive 
help — “One  Shepherd”?  That  one  Shepherd,  we 
now  see,  is  to  become  the  great  world-tie  to  bind 
all  the  sheep  into  one  common  flock.  Let  us, 
therefore,  now  be  brave  enough  to  be  Christians. 
That  is  the  world’s  solution.  There  is  only  one 
figure  that  has  arisen  upon  this  world’s  life  that 
has  been  big  enough  to  be  recognized  as  human 
rather  than  racial.  I  remember  across  the  years 
hearing  Bishop  Quayle  tell  a  plain  story  of  a 
preacher  in  a  foreign  land  waiting  on  a  dock  to 
take  a  ship.  He  could  not  speak  one  word  of 
the  language  of  the  people  there.  In  vain  did 
he  try  to  find  some  basis  of  conversation  with 
one  who  stood  near,  and  sought  also  to  speak. 
He  finally  drew  from  his  pocket  a  Testament, 
and  pointed  to  the  word  Jesus.  They  both 
looked  at  the  name.  It  could  be  read  by  each. 
They  looked  into  each  other’s  eyes,  and  reached 
out  to  shake  friendly  hands.  Utter  strangers  a 
moment  before,  they  then  walked  along  the  wharf 
together  and  sang  together,  one  in  Portuguese 
and  one  in  English,  a  common  song  of  the  com¬ 
mon  Shepherd.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  credential 
of  the  world’s  unity.  The  curse  and  constant 
sorrow  of  our  world  is  its  cliques  and  classes 
and  divisions.  May  God  forgive  us  that  we  have 


THE  CHURCH’S  UNITY 


63 


seen  so  little  of  and  cared  so  little  for  those  who 
are  not  cliqued  or  classed.  We  have  not  yet 
struggled  up  to  the  appreciation  of  the  great 
fact  of  mankind.  We  think  and  write  our  his¬ 
tories  in  the  diminished  terms  of  little  races  and 
nations.  We  await  the  human  fact.  We  seek 
the  larger  tie  than  race  and  nation.  Surely,  of 
all  the  times  the  world  has  ever  known  this  is 
the  time  to  get  into  the  wearied  hearts  of  man¬ 
kind  the  claims  of  the  common  Shepherd.  I 
heard  a  passionately  earnest  man  from  India 
talking  to  a  large  company  of  men  on  the  prob¬ 
lems  of  his  country.  He  said  without  any 
hesitancy  at  all,  that  if  we  westerners  would 
not  insist  upon  making  Jesus  Christ  in  emphasis 
on  the  lines  of  our  Western  interpretation,  but 
would,  rather,  allow  him  to  come  among  the 
people  of  India  clad  in  those  orientalisms  they 
know  so  well,  and  which  he  wears  so  con¬ 
vincingly,  he  would  sweep  India  as  a  great  fire 
sweeps  across  a  dried  prairie.  Jesus  Christ  does 
fit  humanity.  He  fits  mankind  in  fulfillment 
everywhere.  He  is  the  one  type  at  home  with 
man.  Other  great  types  of  men  we  have  had, 
but  they  have  been  tethered  to  their  own  people. 
Call  the  roll  of  all  the  great  ones  of  history,  and 
you  call  the  stories  of  nations.  There  has  never 
arisen  among  men  but  one  figure  that  was  uni¬ 
versal  in  its  type.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  one  Shep¬ 
herd.  God  has  set  him  as  the  mighty  bond  amid 


64 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


civilization,  and  across  all  the  centuries,  as  the 
one  great  common  bond  of  man.  We  have  been 
confused  by  superficial  proposals  dealing  with 
h  1 1  m  an  it  a  ri  an  isms,  and  dreaming  of  universal 
brotherhood  founded  on  social  reform.  But  they 
have  invariably  proven  to  be  of  short  life  because 
they  had  no  depth  of  root.  Their  energy  has 
failed,  or  spent  itself  in  mad  revolt.  By  oft 
costly  experiments  we  have  found  that  the  coarse 
selfishness  and  materialism  of  the  human  heart 
win  an  easy  triumph  over  every  form  of  mere 
visionary  altruism,  and  the  hope  of  the  world 
must  rest  in  a  power  that  can  make  anew  the 
human  heart  and  life.  Social  barriers,  proud 
feelings  of  caste,  family  feuds,  personal  en¬ 
mities,  national  antipathies,  all  must  utterly  dis¬ 
solve  and  disappear  in  the  overwhelming  pres¬ 
ence  of  the  one  great  common  Shepherd. 

It  was  mine  to  be  among  the  hard-pressed 
ranks  of  the  allied  armies  in  that  oppressive 
period  just  before  the  final  tide  was  turned  to¬ 
ward  victory.  Death  was  rampant.  There  was 
no  form  of  terror  that  seemed  too  bad  to  expect. 
Heroism  that  waded  deep  in  indescribable  suf¬ 
fering,  yet  uncomplaining,  was  everywhere. 
There  was  a  desperation  that  held  on  in  the 
gloom,  and  looked  straight  into  the  dark  ahead, 
and  doggedly  waited.  The  story  of  the  White 
Companion  at  the  Mons,  wrought  from  suffering, 
on  a  background  of  terrible  warfare,  came  back 


THE  CHURCH'S  UNITY 


65 


as  a  story  of  interest  from  the  field  to  those  at 
home,  who  waited  in  straining  suspense  for 
every  allowed  word  of  news  that  could  filter 
through.  A  wonderful  picture  was  painted  by 
Hillyard  Swinstead  called  “The  White  Com¬ 
panion/’  and  prompted  doubtless  by  the  story 
from  the  Mons.  The  picture  went  everywhere 
among  the  troops,  anjl  in  the  lonely  waiting 
homes  that  steeled  themselves  to  endure  what¬ 
ever  they  might  be  called  upon  to  endure.  I  saw 
it  in  store  windows,  in  cottage  windows,  in 
soldiers’  tents,  in  soldiers’  pocket  treasures,  in 
papers,  in  magazines.  It  wTas  a  picture  that 
portrayed  the  hope  of  a  great  need.  Two  soldiers 
were  staggering  back  from  the  lines,  across  a  fire- 
swept  field.  One  wms  wounded  sore,  his  head 
bandaged,  yet  drenched  with  his  life  red,  his 
uniform  shot  to  tatters.  He  leaned  heavily  on 
the  strong  encircling  arm  of  a  noble  Red  Cross 
man.  Just  beside  them,  a  figure  clad  in  a  radi¬ 
ance  that  shed  its  beams  upon  the  faces  of  the 
two  struggling  men  and  lightened  the  path 
ahead,  was  the  form  of  the  Son  of  man.  There 
was  no  strange  superstition  in  it.  It  was  an 
effort  of  a  painter  to  fasten  to  canvas  what  the 
whole  world  was  longing  to  realize  in  its  dark¬ 
ened  life.  Out  of  its  sorrow  and  sickness  and 
death  the  world  was  looking  for  the  leadership  of 
its  divine  deliverer;  the  Christ,  Son  of  God, 
Saviour  of  man,  Shepherd  and  Bishop  of  our 


66 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


souls — lie  who  one  great  eternally  glad  day  will 
lead  this  whole  troubled,  distraught  world  of 
ours  out  of  all  its  warnings  and  distresses  and 
divisions  into  the  full  realization  of  its  unity, 
and  enable  us  to  live  in  the  security  of  the  truth 
that  there  is  one  flock  and  one  Shepherd. 


IV 


THE  TWOFOLD  CHURCH 

“I  indeed  baptize  you  with  water  unto  repentance :  but 
he  that  cometh  after  me  is  mightier  than  I,  whose  shoe3 
I  am  not  worthy  to  bear:  he  shall  baptize  you  with  the 
Holy  Ghost  and  with  fire.” — Matthew  3.  11. 

In  all  the  attendant  incidents  that  cluster 
around  the  meeting  of  Jesus  and  John  Baptist 
there  are  fine  meanings  in  religion.  The  old 
order  was  changing.  It  was  changing  in  the 
sense  of  completion.  The  flower  of  Judaism 
was  being  pushed  off  by  the  coming  of  the  fruit. 
John  Baptist  was  the  vital  connection  of  all 
that  which  had  led  up  through  sometimes  wear¬ 
ied  years  to  Jesus  Christ.  Jesus  was  the  com¬ 
pleted  purpose  which  had  reposed  in  all  the 
ceremonies  of  old.  Every  incident  of  this  rug¬ 
ged  witness  of  the  wilderness,  who  gathered 
about  him  an  attentive  multitude  of  earnest 
listeners  as  he  told  of  the  coming  of  the  Mes¬ 
siah,  carried  far  more  than  the  incident.  Words 
were  laden  with  more  than  words.  Deeds  were 
heavy  with  meaning.  John  spoke  better  than  he 
knew. 

There  have  been  those  who  have  kept  nar¬ 
rowed  interpretation  upon  the  passage  I  have 

67 


68 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


selected  for  a  text,  seeking  to  find  in  it  by  intri¬ 
cate  interpretation  somewhat  of  the  instruc¬ 
tions  essential  in  the  mode  by  which  baptism  is 
to  be  administered.  That  is  the  very  least  of  my 
interest  here.  Baptism  is  not  a  dynamic  of  our 
religion.  Christianity  has  been  much  misrepre¬ 
sented  by  haying  its  lesser  elements  made  the 
real  motives  of  it.  Many  troubles  in  the  con¬ 
quest  of  the  world  for  Christ  have  arisen  from 
the  fact  that  emphasis  has  been  placed  on  mere 
incidents.  I  was  on  a  train  the  other  day  when 
we  had  a  wonderful  race  with  another  train  run¬ 
ning  on  a  track  that  for  several  miles  paralleled 
ours.  We  outran  them.  I  helped  all  I  could.  I 
almost  pushed  the  car-seat  in  front  of  me  loose 
from  the  floor.  We  beat  them.  It  was  not  be¬ 
cause  our  train  was  painted  black,  and  theirs 
red.  That  was,  however,  a  matter  of  choice. 
Some  like  black  cars  and  some  like  red  cars. 
But  that  is  not  what  makes  fast  trains,  though 
they  both  be  fast  colors.  The  thing  that  won 
that  race  was  found  in  the  big  engine  ahead,  the 
pressure  of  steam  on  those  pistons.  Baptism 
is  not  a  dynamic  of  religion.  It  is  a  symbol. 
You  will  not  get  far  in  the  evangelization  of  the 
world  with  an  emphasis  on  symbolism.  The 
actual  fact  symbolized  is  what  we  are  concerned 
about.  He  who  studies  John  and  Jesus  merely 
to  find  out  about  baptism  is  like  unto  a  man  who 
became  so  interested  in  the  art  of  a  sign-painter 


THE  TWOFOLD  CHURCH 


69 


that  he  saw  only  the  art  and  forgot  to  read  the 
sign.  John  Baptist  has  actually  made  his  own 
part  so  awkward  and  crude  that  people  could 
not  fail  to  be  impressed  by  the  fact  he  sought  to 
publish  by  being  fascinated  with  how  he  did  it. 
That  is  the  supreme  art  of  the  advertiser,  and 
John  wTas  the  great  advertiser,  announcer,  fore¬ 
runner  of  Jesus  Christ.  He  never  obscured  his 
message  with  his  method.  John  never  got  in 
front  of  Jesus.  He  set  expectation  on  tiptoe 
everywhere  he  went.  He  was  subjected  to  the 
most  severe  test  that  can  be  put  to  a  personality 
of  power,  the  test  of  pushing  off  personal  prefer¬ 
ence  for  the  sake  of  his  absorbing  task.  It  is 
not  hard  to  be  persuaded  that  both  things  can 
be  achieved,  but  such  an  agreement  in  purpose 
has  been,  and  will  forever  be,  fatal  to  each.  The 
crowd  clamored  for  John.  His  position  invited 
the  temptation.  He  was  tall  enough  to  catch  the 
testing  winds.  Small  danger  of  a  shrub  being 
broken  down  or  uprooted  by  the  storm.  The  tall 
pine  fights  the  gale.  The  ground-pine  is  scarce 
fanned  by  a  storm.  “The  truest  test  of  all  great¬ 
ness,  and  especially  of  moral  greatness,  is  often 
found  in  its  refusal  to  be  overrated.”  It  does 
not  require  the  consciousness  of  greatness  to  be 
aware  of  the  genuine  meaning  of  that  fact  to 
life.  There  come  times  to  all  of  us  when  we  at 
least  feel  the  temptation  not  to  concern  ourselves 
with  impressions  that  overstate  our  characters. 


70 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


We  stablish  ourselves  in  the  conduct  of  our  self- 
control  thus,  by  saying  that  we  are  not  account¬ 
able  for  their  ignorance.  It  is  easy  to  see  things 
we  have  done  overestimated.  When  folks  mis¬ 
represent  what  we  do  or  say  in  a  manner  that 
reflects  upon  our  character,  we  are  not  slow  to 
correct  it.  But  when  they  overestimate  some 
small  thing  we  have  done,  and  magnify  it  out  of 
all  proportion  in  compliment,  if  is  not  hard  to 
suppress  our  surprise  and  keep  perfect  control 
of  our  feelings.  The  intense,  concentrate  and 
almost  fanatical  enthusiasm  of  vast  crowds  of 
people  was  centered  on  John  Baptist.  His  pas¬ 
sionate  preaching  had  captured  them.  The  repu¬ 
tation  he  had  made  was  always  ahead  of  him  to 
compel  response  to  whatever  lie  declared  to  his 
audiences.  Luke  has  recorded  it  in  his  Gospel 
thus,  “The  people  were  in  expectation,  and  all 
men  mused  in  their  hearts  of  John,  whether  he 
were  Christ,  or  not.7’  What  tense  preparation 
such  popular  expectation  as  that  must  have 
made  for  the  preacher!  It  winged  every  word 
he  uttered.  It  was  gathered  fuel,  into  which  a 
spark  would  start  a  serious  situation.  There 
was  temptation  to  risk  a  spark.  Had  John 
merely  maintained  silence,  he  would  have  been 
worshiped.  Surely,  there  can  be  little  sin  in 
being  quiet!  These  crowding  people  are  all  for 
you  now,  John !  Such  were  gentle  and  easy  sug¬ 
gestions  that  carried  the  minimum  of  blame.  A 


THE  TWOFOLD  CHURCH 


71 


band  of  devoted  disciples  surrounded  him.  They 
were  jealous  and  angry,  when  they  saw  or  sus¬ 
pected  signs  of  the  dimming  of  his  glory  because 
of  the  rising  glory  of  any  other.  Into  such  a 
condition  John’s  supreme  strength  of  character 
shone.  Jesus  had  not  been  announced,  and  this 
was  the  time  when  his  own  fame  was  at  its 
height,  to  say  his  supreme  word.  Without  a 
tinge  of  bitterness,  but  with  the  true  joy  of  his 
great  privilege  he  said,  “He  must  increase,  but 
I  must  decrease,”  and  pushing  back  the  insistent 
admiration  of  his  followers  he  startled  all  those 
who  could  not  see  bevond  him  and  declared, 
“There  cometh”  one,  “whose  shoes  I  am  not 
wrorthy  to  bear.”  You  call  me  great,  but  I  am 
unworthy  the  lowest  slave’s  service  to  my 
Christ!  In  the  Oriental  house,  the  lowest  slave 
waited  at  the  door  to  carefully  unloose  the 
latches  of  the  dusty  sandals  of  the  guests.  They 
dared  not  so  much  as  touch  the  feet;  that  duty 
was  the  work  and  privilege  of  the  next  higher 
slave.  Such  a  menial  task  was  looked  upon  by 
the  audience  to  which  John  spoke  then,  as  cap¬ 
able  of  being  done  by  the  very  least  slave  obtain¬ 
able.  There  stands  their  hero  upon  whom  they 
had  been  glad  to  shower  honors,  declaring  for 
his  highest  honors,  “I  am  unworthy  to  the  poor¬ 
est  honors  due  Him.” 

With  this  as  an  approach,  I  desire  now  care¬ 
fully  to  distinguish  the  two  comparative  posi- 


72 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


tions  occupied  by  Jesus  and  John  as  elements  in 
our  religion  that  remain,  each  requiring  the 
other  in  explanation.  “I,  John,  baptize  you  with 
water,  but  Jesus  will  baptize  you  with  fire.”  The 
twofold  power  which  must  be  found  in  the  Chris¬ 
tian  Church  is  here.  John  the  worker  in  water. 
Jesus  the  worker  in  fire.  Man  and  God  in 
religion.  The  human  and  divine  ingredients  in 
Christianity — the  twofold  church. 

The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  becomes  powerful 
and  adapted,  because  it  is  where  God  and  man 
get  in  touch  and  in  cooperation  form  an  actual 
partnership  of  service.  There  is  a  powerful 
preachment  there,  if  we  can  but  find  the  words 
now  to  get  it  said  right.  It  is  a  message  in 
church  announcement  too,  that  is  primarily 
essential  to  this  particular  day  of  ours.  There 
are  few  more  difficult  things  to  get  said  in 
this  humanly  efficient  time,  in  a  manner  that 
will  get  a  hearing,  than  the  fact  that  no  profi¬ 
ciency  of  man  can  ever  build  God  out.  Be¬ 
cause  man  has  pushed  back  the  horizon  of  his 
efficiency  very  far  to-day,  it  seems  that  the  sense 
of  outside  dependence  is  hard  to  make  con¬ 
vincing.  It  is  a  long  way  to  the  break-down  of 
human  strength  now ;  that  is,  if  we  can  imagine 
just  how  far  a  long  way  would  be  on  an  infinite 
scale.  Human  effort  is  forever  illustrate  in 
Babel’s  Tower.  The  height  of  the  tower  matters 
nothing.  Absolutely  nothing  I  mean.  The  same 


THE  TWOFOLD  CHUKCH 


73 


truth  would  be  demonstrate  were  it  ten  feet  or 
ten  thousand  feet  high.  Those  ambitious  men 
who  were  trying  to  build  up  a  way  of  their  own 
to  God,  were  to  be  taught  the  great  lesson  that 
has  no  nearer  a  completion  on  top  of  the  last 
layer  of  brick  they  can  stack  in  their  highest 
tower,  than  it  has  on  the  first  thin  brick  they  laid 
on  the  sand.  Nothing  matters  how  merely  high 
man  shall  climb.  He  stands  by  his  own  effort 
no  nearer  God  tiptoe  his  greatest  built-up  ascent 
than  he  did  in  the  dust  of  the  lowly  plain  of 
Shinar.  The  real  approaches  to  God  have  long 
ago  taught  us  that  we  do  actually  draw  nearer 
to  him  when  with  bowed  heads  in  reverence  we 
stand  in  the  evening  fields  of  life  touched  by  the 
bells  of  Angelus,  than  when  in  defiance  we  clam¬ 
ber  up  some  tower  and  reach  out  expectant  hand. 
Mankind  feeling  after  God  is  full  of  hope  as  indi¬ 
cative  of  what  that  desire  will  enlist  from  God. 
But  if  he  shall  have  in  his  endeavors  results  only 
of  what  he  can  do,  he  is  hopeless.  His  arms  are 
too  short.  His  vision  is  too  narrow.  But,  God 
seeking  after  man ;  emerging  from  those  shadows 
that  to  our  eyes  have  inclosed  him ;  placing  him¬ 
self  in  touch  of  the  feeling  human  desire — that 
is  the  hope  of  our  salvation. 

The  ministry  of  the  two  elements  water  and 
fire,  made  use  of  in  the  figure  John  chose,  are 
the  mightiest  and  most  resistless  of  all  the  forces 
we  know  here.  Either  commands  respect.  Both 


74 


THE  EXPECTED  CHUBCH 


have  played  mighty  and  essential  parts  in  the 
very  making  of  our  world.  Neptunists  and 
Vulcanists,  among  geologists,  have  with  care 
marked  out  the  ministry  of  fire  and  water  in  the 
making  of  this  globe.  By  both  has  the  wilder¬ 
ness  of  the  earth  been  molded.  Without  water 
we  cannot  live.  Oh  the  joy  and  refreshing  glad¬ 
ness  of  the  fresh  watered  country !  Those  who 
have  lived  where  drought  has  blown  its  hot, 
withering  breath  across  the  dried  fields  know 
the  delight  of  the  springing  fresh  green  fields. 
I  have  seen  the  dried,  parched  earth;  the  great 
cracks  that  opened  in  the  ground;  the  dead  yel¬ 
lowed  grass  that  rustled  in  the  hot  breeze; 
waterless  fields;  how  wretched  the  very  term 
sounds!  So  men  go  far  to  the  mountains  and 
bend  the  streams  to  suit  their  wishes  and  bring 
the  refreshing  waters  out  on  the  waiting  fields. 
I  remember  so  well  the  lovely  green  evidence  that 
clusters  up  about  the  spring  of  Elisha,  at  old 
Jericho.  It  is  a  large  spring  and  the  gardeners 
have  crowded  up  with  their  gardens  and  planted 
them  to  green  success  just  as  far  out  into  the 
dried  plains  of  the  Jordan  valley  as  the  water 
will  run.  But  the  dead  edge  of  the  waterless 
land  lies  not  far  off  from  the  refreshing  mouth 
of  the  spring  which  does  its  best.  Water  is  the 
more  natural  element  in  our  understanding,  and 
John  used  it  first.  We  learned  our  first  step  in 
living  by  the  use  of  water.  Fire  we  felt  our 


THE  TWOFOLD  CHURCH 


more  cautious  way  toward.  This  scientific  day 
of  ours  has  found  more  and  increasingly  more 
uses  for  it,  as  we  have  discovered  how  to  direct 
it,  how  to  increase  its  burning,  how  to  increase 
its  heat.  The  action  of  fire  is  inner.  We  have 
found  out  how  to  use  blowpipes  and  furnaces  and 
forges  and  retorts.  We  have  found  out  what 
fire  is  good  for.  Let  us  seek  now  for  the  religious 
significance  of  this  word  of  John,  the  worker  in 
water,  pointing  to  Jesus,  the  worker  in  fire. 

First  John  is  the  declaration  of  the  human 
part  of  our  religion.  I  know  I  am  dealing  now 
with  a  distinction  that  may  be  easily  misunder¬ 
stood.  We  must  not  confuse  John’s  service.  We 
must  not  underrate  either  John  or  Jesus.  Jesus 
himself,  the  operator  of  that  higher  and  diviner 
element  in  our  religion,  not  only  submitted  to 
but  insisted  upon  the  baptism  of  John. 

Immediately  after  the  incident  of  our  text 
the  supernatural  and  the  natural  joined  hands  to 
march  in  united  campaign  to  the  sure  conquest 
of  the  world.  John’s  baptism  meant,  get  your 
bodies  clean,  make  your  lives  better  and  purer; 
repent!  This  is  the  gospel  of  repentance.  That 
is  the  primary  principle  in  human  progress  in 
righteousness.  The  fundamental  requirement 
upon  the  human  soul  is  self-cleansing  in  prepara¬ 
tion  of  God-cleansing.  That  is  fundamental 
religion.  We  cannot  shift  upon  God  the  respon¬ 
sibility  of  our  salvation.  “Let  the  wicked  for- 


76 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


sake  his  way,  and  the  unrighteous  man  his 
thoughts:  and  let  him  return  unto  the  Lord, 
and  he  will  have  mercy  upon  him ;  and  unto  our 
God,  for  he  will  abundantly  pardon.”  The  pro¬ 
visions  of  the  gospel  hang  upon  human  initiative. 
John  Baptist  stands  for  that.  He  was  more 
than  a  preacher.  He  was,  rather,  an  event.  It 
was  in  itself,  to  be  sure,  a  very  great  honor, 
and  a  distinguishment  to  remain  forever  down 
the  story  of  men,  however  long  it  might  run, 
that  he  was  the  forerunner  of  our  Lord.  But 
just  as  Jesus  Christ  was  to  come  to  mean  far 
more  than  did  the  candidate  he  was  that  day 
for  baptism,  just  as  that  Lamb  of  God,  so  pointed 
out  by  John,  went  on  from  there  to  his  great 
world-altar  on  Calvary  for  the  redemption  of 
sinners,  just  so  was  the  meaning  of  John’s  mes¬ 
sage  more  than  he  said  then.  In  that  strange 
wilderness  we  all  have  found  out,  which  exists 
in  every  life,  it  becomes  necessary  that  this  same 
spirit  shall  again  appear  and  make  ready  there 
the  coming  of  the  Lord.  Jesus  Christ,  and  all 
his  power  and  presence,  will  not  come  into  the 
wilderness  of  your  life  and  mine,  merely  to 
blaze  his  way  in  reconnoiter.  He  is  not  around 
exploring  the  human  soul.  Whenever  we  shall 
be  participant  of  the  measureless  blessing  of  the 
coming  of  our  Lord,  Redeemer,  Saviour,  we  will 
have  had  to  make  ready  that  coming  by  most 
careful  preparation.  John’s  business  is  funda- 


THE  TWOFOLD  CHURCH 


77 


mental.  Christianity  with  all  its  attendant 
blessings  is  not  mere  reception.  Impotence  on 
your  part  is  not  an  element  in  the  gospel.  A 
broken  and  empty  vessel  is  not  a  fair  offering 
for  us  to  bring  to  our  Lord.  There  is  a  human 
task  in  religion.  You  can’t  even  grow  without 
effort.  The  process  of  growth  is  work.  There 
must  be  a  tearing  down  in  order  that  there  shall 
be  a  more  efficient  building  up  enjoyed.  Though 
unconscious  to  you  every  particle  of  your  body 
must  pass  through  violent  action,  even  unto  the 
death  of  itself,  before  growth  can  be  attained. 
There  is  an  essential  John- side  in  the  matter  of 
Christ  coming  to  your  life.  You  must  go  into 
the  wilderness  of  your  own  soul.  You  alone 
know  the  way  there.  Make  there  a  straight  way 
for  the  coming  of  your  Redeemer. 

That  is  a  fundamental  principle  that  must 
precede  Christ’s  coming  to  mankind.  The 
church  has  John’s  work  now  to  do.  The  mantle 
of  the  Baptist  has  now  fallen  upon  Christ’s 
church.  Give  us  to-day  a  church  in  the  world,  in 
which  the  membership  consistently  stands  for 
the  clean  life  implied  in  John’s  baptism,  and  the 
progress  of  Jesus  Christ  straight  into  the 
world’s  life  will  be  an  unhindered  march.  I 
will  dare,  therefore,  now  put  the  searching  ques¬ 
tion  to  you  which  all  this  implies  and  really 
compels ;  I  will  dare  put  it  to  you  because  I  have 
first  tried  to  put  it  straight  and  honestly  to  my 


78 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


own  heart.  Not  that  in  any  manner  I  would 
seem  to  come  now  to  make  claim  to  qualify  be¬ 
fore  such  a  serious  question  as  this  is,  but,  rather, 
that  God  will  bear  me  witness,  I  have  sought 
earnestly  that  I  might  be,  even  wdth  my  poverty 
of  life  and  service,  of  some  help  in  the  great  task 
of  the  Church  of  Christ  on  earth  now.  I  make 
bold,  therefore,  to  ask,  how  much,  oh,  how  much, 
if  any,  has  my  life  cleared  the  way  about  my 
community  for  the  coming  to  it  of  my  Lord  and 
Saviour?  Let  none  dodge  the  issue.  We  can¬ 
not  shift  the  blame.  How  many  lives  have  you 
ever  cleared  a  path  before,  along  which  Jesus 
Christ  might  come?  Has  there  ever  been  heard 
in  the  wilderness  surrounding  any  heart  any¬ 
where  the  true  cry  of  your  earnest  life,  “Make 
way  for  the  Lord”?  I  saw  a  meeting  strangely 
moved  one  night,  and  I  heard  a  word  from  a  wrell- 
known  man  among  us  as  we  were  planning  some 
evangelistic  endeavor,  that  surprised  and  yet 
sent  searching  questions  into  all  our  hearts,  as 
he  rose  and  frankly  declared  that  though  he 
had  been  a  Christian  from  boyhood,  and  though 
he  had  always  been  endeavoring  to  do  his  pre¬ 
scribed  work  in  the  church,  and  was  then  as  he 
had  been  for  many  years  an  official  member  in 
the  church,  he  yet  could  not  say  that  he  knew 
of  the  case  of  one  human  soul  to  whom  he  had 
been  the  direct  means  of  acquaintanceship  with 
Jesus  Christ.  That  frank  and  significant  con- 


THE  TWOFOLD  CHURCH 


79 


fession  set  a  flame  to  that  meeting,  and  we  found 
ourselves  very  quickly  dealing  with  genuine 
evangelistic  fundamentals.  That  is  the  human 
essential  in  the  church.  It  cannot  be  left  out. 
It  stands  in  demand  before  every  one  of  us. 
There  is  no  excuse  to  be  found  in  personal  ob¬ 
scurity.  You  will  remember  here  and  there  all 
down  the  eloquent  story  of  the  church  how  some 
John  Baptist  or  John  of  Barneveldt  or  John 
Wesley  or  John  Callahan  or  John  You,  actually 
did  reach  through  the  very  dull  day  in  which 
they  lived  and  touched  to  real  result  this  vital 
fact.  The  human  side  of  the  twofold  Church  of 
Christ. 

Second.  Thus  far  we  have  come  in  considera¬ 
tion  of  the  preliminary  element  of  our  religion, 
in  order  thus  to  be  able  more  quickly  to  declare 
what  the  real  dynamic  of  it  is.  The  human  part 
is  preliminary.  It  cannot  be  more.  Men  lose 
when  they  hold  only  that.  You  cannot  light 
your  path  at  night  with  a  picture  of  a  torch,  no 
matter  with  how  much  genius  it  shall  have  been 
painted.  I  saw  a  wonderful  picture  once  of  a 
beautiful  sun-flooded  field.  It  was  a  true  mas¬ 
terpiece — but  we  had  to  turn  on  the  lights  to 
see  it.  There  was  not  even  the  softest  glow 
about  it.  Even  so  this,  though  it  be  essential, 
human  side  of  our  religion  is  so  small  that  John 
makes  it  unworthy  to  even  loosen  the  shoe- 
latchets  of  the  divine  element.  It  is  absolutely 


80 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


important  that  I  have  a  clean  earth-life.  God 
help  us  every  one  at  that  task.  But  that  is 
strong  because  of  what  it  makes  possible  to 
bring  into  our  lives,  and  through  us  into  the 
world’s  life.  Folks  can  be  good  and  not  Chris¬ 
tians — merely  good.  You  cannot  be  Christians 
and  not  good,  however.  Just  as  soon  as  the 
wires  become  grounded  we  lose  the  whole  charge. 
It  is  very  important  that  the  wires  for  electricity 
shall  be  properly  hung  and  insulated.  But  they 
can  be  hung  perfectly  from  the  standpoint  of 
workmanship  and  still  leave  us  sitting  in  the 
darkness.  It  is  possible  to  have  an  absolutely 
perfect  exhibition  of  wiring,  simply  as  wiring. 
Electricity  on  those  wires  is  another  matter.  It 
is  possible  to  have  a  good,  moral,  clean  life,  and 
still  be  only  that.  But  that  is  exactly  what  the 
tragedy  of  a  merely  good  life  is.  A  good  life 
ought  to  be  a  religious  life.  Xo  man  would  ever 
be  so  dull  of  perception  as  to  pass  along  our 
wire-interlaced  streets  and  think  we  had  merely 
hung  wires  there  just  for  the  purpose  of  hanging 
wires  on  posts.  Of  course  there  is  some  reason 
for  these  wires,  and  an  absolute  stranger  to  our 
civilization  would  ask  why  the  wires  were  there. 
We  even  forget  the  wires  along  which  the  light 
has  come,  or  over  which  our  words  have  gone 
leaping  with  unthinkable  speed,  unless  the  light 
fails,  or  our  phone  gets  no  response.  Then  we 
say,  “What  is  the  trouble  with  our  connection?’’ 


THE  TWOFOLD  CHURCH 


81 


The  genius  of  perfect  equipment  is  that  you  for¬ 
get  it  in  the  service  it  renders.  When  you  are 
making  ready  for  the  coming  of  the  power,  then 
the  thought  is  on  the  equipment.  With  familiar 
figure  thus  I  have  been  endeavoring  to  put  this 
fact  of  our  text  before  you.  The  church  to  the 
world  is  in  this.  When  we  are  perfectly  ad¬ 
justed  the  world  has  long  since  learned  the 
religious  power  we  carry.  Then  no  one  asks 
about  us,  for  our  righteousness  is  evident  in 
attained  results,  and  in  those  results  our  right¬ 
eousness  will  remain  without  notice.  But  when 
the  power  doesn’t  come,  and  when  there  is  no 
evidence  of  the  divine  in  our  work,  no  matter 
how  splendidly  we  polish  up  the  equipment,  men 
ask  and  ask  eagerly,  “What’s  the  matter  with 
the  church?”  Then  have  we  made  it  of  none  effect. 
When  the  spiritual  life  flashes  out,  we  wonder 
what  is  wrong  with  the  earth  life.  If  an  individ¬ 
ual  seems  brilliant,  and  is  yet  devoid  of  spiritual 
influence,  if  a  church  seems  strenuous,  and  en¬ 
thusiastic  in  all  its  work,  and  yet  remains  with¬ 
out  results  in  the  salvation  of  souls,  and  finds 
itself  standing  in  the  community  a  mere  house 
of  empty  services,  we  at  once  ask,  “What  is  the 
matter  with  the  earth-life?”  The  consciousness 
of  a  fault  somewhere  in  the  human  equipment  is 
what  we  realize  when  the  purpose  of  the  church 
is  not  accomplished.  John  calls  the  power  that 
is  to  attend  this  rightly  arranged  human  prepa- 


82 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


ration,  the  baptism  of  fire.  Think  of  his  figure. 
What  agency  has  ever  been  found  that  carries 
such  powerful  purifying  ability  as  the  agency  of 
fire?  You  can  wash  the  surface  with  water,  but 
you  will  not  thereby  cleanse  the  real  substance. 
Beyond  John  Baptist’s  side  of  Christianity  is 
the  work  of  the  Christ  side  of  it.  The  miner 
brings  in  from  his  washing-pans  clean,  yellow 
gold.  It  is  beautiful  and  valuable.  But  there 
clings  to  it,  and  down  in  it,  a  dross  wThich  can 
only  be  removed  by  fire.  I  have  gazed  into  the 
heated  furnace.  Why  burn  the  gold  so  fiercely? 
They  keep  a  careful  registration  of  the  heat 
there.  They  told  me  it  had  to  be  done  in  order 
to  burn  away  all  the  impurities.  I  remember  so 
well  with  what  wonder  as  a  college  boy  I  watched 
the  test  of  the  borax  bead  in  our  class  in  blow¬ 
pipe  analysis.  We  would  burn  a  bit  of  borax 
on  a  platinum  wire  at  the  point  of  a  blowpipe 
flame  until  it  was  absolutely  clear.  Then  we 
could  with  its  purity,  detect  the  substance  of 
anything  it  touched  by  the  color  it  wmuld  pro¬ 
duce  in  that  pure  bead.  John  says  Jesus’  bap¬ 
tism  of  fire  is  the  symbol  of  purity  for  power. 
Baptism  of  water,  human  part,  is  introductory 
to  the  real  work  of  God  in  us  symbolized  by  fire. 
Moral  life  is  precious.  There  cannot  be  placed 
upon  it  too  high  a  measure  of  importance.  Would 
God  we  were  all  better.  God  knows  my  own 
personal  prayer.  But  moral  life  alone  is  not 


THE  TWOFOLD  CHURCH 


83 


sufficient.  The  real  power  of  religion  is  not  in 
it.  If  we  have  mere  morals,  what  have  we  more 
than  others?  We  have  no  monopoly  on  morals. 
The  heathen  may  be  good.  I  have  frequently 
had  folks  say  in  a  confidence  that  they  had 
justified  themselves  completely,  “I  am  as  good 
as  church  folks.”  It  may  all  be  true.  But  even 
perfect  wiring  may  leave  your  house  in  darkness. 
There  is  no  brilliance  in  wires.  It  has  been 
true,  too,  that  some  wiring  not  nearly  so  good  as 
yours  has  still  brought  light  and  cheer  into  the 
house.  The  ministration  of  John  Baptist  is  not 
enough.  He  is  unworthy — he  so  testifies.  We 
must  have  your  very  best  life.  We  do  not  argue 
that.  But  the  only  thing  that  will  purify  the 
life  of  the  church  and  put  into  it  the  power  it 
must  have  to  get  its  work  done  is  the  baptism  of 
fire.  There  is  a  very  familiar  story,  become 
familiar  because  it  is  one  of  the  best  ones  out  of 
mythology,  which  tells  how  Epimetheus  sent  his 
brother  to  steal  for  him  some  of  the  fire  of  the 
gods.  So  Prometheus,  aided  by  Minerva, 
climbed  the  great  arch  of  the  heavens  and 
kindled  his  torch  at  the  flaming  chariot  wheels 
of  the  sun,  and  brought  the  sacred  fire  back  to 
Epimetheus,  proud  and  confident  of  its  great 
value.  We  are  not  in  need  now  of  any  such 
mythological  boldness.  Jesus  Christ  has  come 
this  wav.  We  need  not  wear  ourselves  to  weari- 

t/ 

ness  in  the  impossible  climb  to  God.  Yet  this 


84 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


has  largely  been  the  hard  religious  endeavor  of 
the  past.  We  will  scale  the  heavens  and  light 
our  torches  at  God’s  altar.  Listen,  O  ambitious 
day  of  ours!  You  need  salvation  from  yourself. 
You  look  at  science  as  Prometheus,  and  with  his 
million-league  boots  you  send  him  out  on  the 
measureless  trail  of  the  heavens  whose  horizons 
you  have  pushed  back  to  a  farther  flung  appre¬ 
ciation  of  infinitude  than  any  other  day  has  ever 
had,  and  ask  him  now  to  bring  again  to  you  the 
fresh  lighted  torch  from  heaven’s  highest  altar. 
The  stories  he  brings  back  from  his  journeys 
to-day  make  the  stories  of  mythology  sound 
stale  and  tame,  for  we  have  actually  felt  out 
farther  and  brought  in  reports  from  distances 
whose  terms  were  not  even  thinkable  yesterday. 
But  this  modern  Prometheus  does  not  succeed, 
the  reason  being  that  the  real  malady  of  the 
race,  productive  of  ignorance  and  care  and  pain, 
is  unrighteousness  and  not  what  this  new  Prome¬ 
theus  would  have  us  think.  We  await,  and 
simply  must  have  God.  It  is  less  distance  for 
God  to  come  to  us  than  for  us  to  go  to  him.  This 
is  the  message  of  the  Christian  Church.  This  is 
the  ministry  of  Jesus  Christ.  Let  us  get  hon¬ 
estly  to  the  world,  and  with  clean  life  let  us  help 
make  straight  the  path  for  the  coming  in 
quickly  of  the  power  of  God  in  Christ,  that  will 
burn  up  the  dross,  and  purify  and  make  usable 
all  the  gold  of  the  age  in  which  we  live.  May 


THE  TWOFOLD  CHURCH 


85 


the  clear  contrast  of  these  two  elements  of  our 
religion  stand  forth  in  our  lives,  and  may  this 
simple  call  here  made  be  used  of  the  Spirit  to 
the  genuine  building  of  our  faith.  God  needs 
you,  and  you  need  God,  in  the  big  effort  to  make 
this  whole  world  better  and  lead  it  up  to  full 
salvation. 


Y 


THE  CHURCH’S  MESSAGE 

“As  much  as  in  me  is,  I  am  ready  to  preach  the  gos¬ 
pel.” — Romans  1.  15. 

The  message  of  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  to 
the  age  is  the  ever-interesting  question  before 
the  churchman  who  looks  upon  the  church  as 
the  institution  of  God  raised  up  to  set  right  a 
world  gone  wrong.  The  gospel  remains  the 
same,  but  the  ever-changing  age  demands  an 
ever-changing  method  in  order  to  adapt  that 
gospel  to  its  task.  The  work  of  the  church  has 
ever  been  troubled  by  devotees  who  could  not 
distinguish  between  matter  and  method.  The 
ever-essential  fact  of  the  gospel  of  our  Lord 
Christ  has  the  right  of  universal  adaptation  of 
age  and  people. 

As  a  Christian  man  I  must  seek  honestly  and 
diligently  to  know  my  age  and  to  understand  it. 
I  must  know  its  conditions  without  a  prejudice 
that  would  invalidate  my  conclusions.  I  must 
know  its  motives,  its  ambitions  and  its  abilities, 
I  must  discern  its  loves  and  its  hates,  the  prob¬ 
lems  that  distress  it,  the  hopes  that  lift  it.  I 
must  detect  carefully  the  sound  of  its  grinding 

86 


THE  CHURCH’S  MESSAGE 


87 


wheels,  the  echoes  of  its  delirious  pleasures,  the 
sighs  and  sobs  of  its  sorrows. 

There  may  yet  be  some  quiet,  secluded  places 
on  earth,  from  whence  men  and  women  can  come 
up  to  God  in  judgment  and  submit  a  record  of 
mere  passive  goodness  in  a  confidence  that  it  is 
enough.  I  do  not  just  now,  however,  know  where 
those  places  are  located.  There  may  have  been 
ages  in  our  world’s  much-troubled  story  from 
which  men  and  women  could  go  home  to  God  in 
assurance  that  they  had  shut  themselves  merely 
away  from  human  contact  and  thus  found  salva¬ 
tion,  though  I  have  never  yet  been  able  to  bring 
myself  to  believe  I  have  read  into  the  human 
story  when  such  thing  was  justifiably  Christian. 
But  I  would  dread  to  attempt  to  walk  up  to  a 
judgment  set  against  this  great  day  in  which  we 
find  ourselves  charged  with  living,  and  bring  as 
my  defense,  and  all  the  appeal  for  salvation  I 
could  muster,  the  negative  declaration  that  I 
had  never  hurt  anybody,  or  at  least  no  one  ever 
knew  I  had  done  so.  I  stood  beside  a  judge  the 
other  day  as  he  was  passing  sentence  upon  a 
man  who  had  been  convicted  of  a  very  serious 
crime,  and  the  crushed  lives  in  glaring  evidence 
of  his  guilt  were  beside  him  before  the  judge.  I 
do  not  know  why  he  dared  speak  such  axiomatic 
folly  as  he  did,  but  from  his  trembling  lips  when 
given  leave  to  speak  before  sentence  was  passed, 
the  convicted  man  said,  “If  I  had  only  remained 


88 


THE  EXPECTED  CHUBCH 


out  of  the  country  you  would  not  have  caught 
me.”  I  never  heard  such  words  from  a  judge’s  lips 
as  leaped  out  in  answer  to  that  coward’s  plea. 
Judgment  flamed  up  in  response  to  so  weak  an 
idea  as  avoidance,  as  a  matter  for  even  con¬ 
sideration  when  positive  matters  were  at  stake. 
The  Christian  will  find  no  security  in  avoidance 
of  any  responsibility.  The  Christian  Church 
can  never  conduct  a  program  of  avoidance.  It 
was  established  with  a  mission,  which  mission 
meant  perpetual  vital  contact  with  every  human 
need.  In  the  crisis  of  this  day,  when  social  mat¬ 
ters  are  the  burden  of  the  soap-box  orator’s  ad¬ 
dress  and  the  appeal  of  every  plain  man’s 
thinking,  there  surely  must  be  recognized  the 
vital  part  to  be  rendered  by  the  message  of 
Jesus’  gospel,  if  it  be  what  we  who  profess  our¬ 
selves  to  be  Christians  believe  it  to  be.  The 
passion  of  the  church  should  be  expended  in 
delivering  that  message.  I  fear  me  we  have  been 
guilty  of  late  of  putting  our  most  enthusiastic 
endeavor  on  mechanics  rather  than  message. 

The  busy  life  of  our  busy  world  that  is  in  some¬ 
what  blind  endeavor  seeking  now  to  build 
back  its  broken  place  in  industry,  is  filling  our 
ears  with  confused  noises.  Men  everywhere  are 
sensing  the  monopolizing  tendency  of  that  life 
which  deals  with  things.  The  atmosphere  about 
us  blows  from  a  whole  world  too — a  needy  world, 
a  world  with  eager  hands  outstretched,  a  world 


THE  CHUKCH’S  MESSAGE 


89 


realizing  it  must  wait  at  our  factory  doors.  All 
this  means  more  to  us  as  Christians  than  we 
realize  at  first  thought.  The  church  must  stand 
amid  it  all.  It  must  stand  there  for  something ; 
something  distinct  and  worthy,  something  great 
enough  and  practical  enough  to  be  able  to  ask 
attention  for;  something  we  can  feel  justified 
in  demanding  enthusiasm  for,  even  to  the  full 
measure  of  sacrifice.  You  men,  with  the  sweat 
of  labor  on  your  faces,  and  the  soil  of  hard  work 
on  your  hands,  hear  ye!  We  have  a  word  for 
you.  You  men  who  guide  our  ships  and  plan 
our  commerce,  stop  your  ships  and  listen!  You 
men  who  are  eagerly  engaged  in  bringing  the 
golden  harvests  from  the  fruitful  bosoms  of  our 
bountiful  fields  to  the  hunger-driven  crowds  of 
our  city  streets,  we  have  a  word  for  you:  “As 
much  as  in  me  is,  I  am  ready  to  preach  the  gos¬ 
pel!”  I  am  saying  that  unless  the  church  has 
an  absolute  profound  faith  in  that  message 
she  will  not  dare  run  out  before  such  a  busy, 
hard-pressed  world  as  our  world  is  now,  and 
ask  for  a  hearing.  We  do  not  dare  ask  a  hearing 
unless  we  have  something  to  say.  We  must  ex¬ 
pect  likewise  that  when  God  sent  us  out  to  speak 
to  such  a  world  as  this  he  did  not  send  us  out 
with  mere  words  to  string  meaningless  phrases, 
nor  to  spend  ourselves  in  mere  exercise  over  mat¬ 
ters  that  were  impotent  to  change  the  kind  of  a 
world  we  know  is  not  right,  into  the  world  such 


90 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


unrighteousness  but  argues  for,  because  it  is  un¬ 
righteousness,  and  that  is  negative. 

The  church  is  risked  with  a  real  revolution¬ 
izing  message.  A  wrong  world  could  not  expect 
anything  else.  That  fact  likewise  makes  just 
interest  in  what  the  church  shall  do  with  its 
trust.  When  a  boy  lies  on  my  lawn  playing  with 
a  ball  and  a  few  marbles,  I  am  little  concerned, 
and  concerned  as  I  am,  only  with  his  personal 
happiness.  But  when  he  begins  carelessly  bat¬ 
ting  a  stick  of  dynamite  about,  I  either  change 
the  game  or  move  my  location.  The  world  has 
come  to  realize  that  the  message  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  no  mere  toy-program  for  the 
entertainment  of  a  company  of  people  who  meet 
together  apart  from  the  world  just  to  talk.  That 
gospel  has  been  delivered  to  the  church,  which 
has  been  charged  to  stir  it  into  the  life  of  the 
world,  and  the  world  knows  it  will  change  that 
life  when  it  is  done.  That  gospel  has  been  sent 
to  be  delivered  in  the  market,  in  the  counting- 
room,  in  the  shop,  on  the  dock,  in  the  field,  at 
the  counter,  everywhere  where  men  and  women 
and  children  live  and  work,  and  to  be  delivered 
there  not  merely  as  though  it  had  a  recognized 
right  there,  but  as  though  it  had  an  irresistible 
mission  there.  The  task  of  the  church  is  to 
gather  up  into  Jesus  Christ  not  some  but  all 
human  life;  and  the  message  which  is  to  make 
that  task  an  accomplished  fact  is  this  great  gos- 


THE  CHURCH’S  MESSAGE 


91 


pel  of  Jesus.  It  is  to  be  preached  not  merely 
from  the  pulpit,  even  though  that  be  done  with 
all  the  eloquence  of  Paul,  who  gave  us  the  text 
we  use  now  on  one  of  his  greatest  preaching  days, 
but  preached  likewise  by  every  simple  believer 
who  lives  its  precepts  into  the  actual  footsteps 
of  ordinary  life.  There  was  to  me  a  most  inter¬ 
esting  incident  of  the  living  message  of  our  gos¬ 
pel  which  happened  in  some  unpretentious  ser¬ 
vice  of  some  Christians  during  the  Great  War. 
A  shipload  of  Hindus  came  to  France.  Some 
plain  Christian  workers  had  been  assigned  for 
welfare  work  among  them,  with  strict  orders, 
and  with  faithful  promise  of  those  men,  that 
they  would  not  mention  the  name  of  Christ  nor 
speak  of  Christianity.  Those  honest  Christians 
went  to  merely  live  the  life,  as  honestly  as  they 
could  see  it,  that  Christ  would  have  them  live. 
They  literally  followed  his  most  menial  example, 
and  washed  the  feet  of  men  in  need,  and  minis¬ 
tered  to  those  warriors,  Mohammedans  and 
Buddhists,  in  a  living  though  wordless  message. 
The  Hindu  soldiers  wrote  home  when  they  ar¬ 
rived  in  France:  “When  we  left  Calcutta  there 
were  no  Mohammedans  who  cared  for  our  souls ; 
there  were  no  Buddhists  who  looked  after  us. 
These  Christians  have  been  brothers  to  us. 
There  is  nothing  they  have  not  done  for  us.  They 
have  been  like  servants.  Put  our  sons  and 
daughters  in  the  missionary  schools;  we  want  to 


92 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


know  what  this  Christian  religion  is.”  That  is 
what  I  call  delivering  the  gospel  message  effec¬ 
tually.  Woe  be  to  any  life  that  dares  the  name 
Christian  that  shall  dare  allow  such  fertile  days 
as  these  to  pass  without  improvement. 

Jesus  Christ  is  always  close  to  life.  He  came 
in  order  to  get  God  close  to  man.  He  is  never 
confused,  he  is  never  at  a  loss  to  meet  any  human 
situation.  There  is  no  complicating  condition  to 
which  he  cannot  adjust  himself;  no  hindering 
difficulty,  no  crushing  sorrow,  no  bewilder¬ 
ing  defeat,  no  head-turning  victory.  Nothing 
man  knows,  or  can  do,  will  confuse  this  Christ 
of  God.  He  is  the  consummate  expression 
of  God  toward  man,  after  the  long  ages  of 
preparation  through  the  needs  and  calls  of 
humanity.  I  get  the  testimony  of  those  typi¬ 
cal  ones  all  down  the  long  tedious  way  when 
men  stumbled  onward  with  expectant  eyes,  and 
waiting  the  full  revelation  were  vet  confident  of 
the  fact.  Abraham,  plodding  an  oft  wearied 
way,  but  never  faltering  in  his  faith,  cried  out 
when  he  couldn’t  see,  but  could  still  trust,  “The 
Lord  sees  our  need  and  will  provide.”  Moses, 
standing  hilltop  in  a  strange,  hostile  land,  hold¬ 
ing  up  his  hands  in  persistent  confidence  when 
all  his  natural  eyes  could  see  was  the  oncoming 
hosts  of  his  enemies,  still  cried  out,  “Jehovah  is 
my  banner.”  Gideon,  temporarily  timid,  but  at 
last  recovering  himself  and  running  in  his  glad, 


THE  CHURCH'S  MESSAGE 


93 


strange  triumph,  built  an  altar  and  declared, 
“The  Lord  is  Peace.”  Jeremiah,  from  his  gloomy 
grotto,  with  the  sad  ashes  of  the  nation  sprin¬ 
kled  on  his  head,  and  the  crash  of  his  falling- 
land  in  his  ears  as  Babylon  trampled  it  down, 
still  looked  out  of  his  darkness  to  see  and  said, 
“ Jehovah  our  Righteousness.”  Ezekiel,  whose 
eyes  unhindered  looked  steadily  to  wonderful 
visions  ever  beyond  every  settling  gloom,  and 
beheld  the  establishment  of  the  faith,  declared, 
“The  Lord  is  there.”  I  need  not  list  more  of 
those  witnesses  down  the  great  story  of  the  Old 
Testament.  The  New  Testament  brings  all  these 
persistent  testimonies  and  expectations  to  a 
universal  answer,  and  Jesus  Christ,  friend  and 
Saviour  of  every  man,  stands  forth.  Hence¬ 
forth  he  is  to  be  the  demonstration,  eloquent  and 
conclusive,  of  God  with  us,  Emmanuel,  and  to 
show  us  effectually  that  in  everything  we  have 
him  beside  us.  He  is  abreast  every  question.  He 
is  actually  a  part  of  every  calling  need.  Take 
this  one  manifest  appeal.  We  are  in  social 
trouble — this  industrial-ridden  day;  day  of  roar¬ 
ing  forges,  pounding  sledges,  hissing  engines, 
straining  derricks,  grinding  wheels;  questions  of 
labor  and  capital,  poverty,  family  integrity, 
city  governments,  industrial  competition.  This 
trouble-crowded  day  is  sure  things  are  out  of 
harmony.  There  is  a  haunting  sense  of  inequal¬ 
ity,  There  is  a  consciousness  of  contradiction 


94 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


between  economic  progress  and  spiritual  ideals. 
The  disturbance  is  radical.  It  is  not  a  matter 
merely  held  in  the  analytical  thought-processes 
of  the  scholar.  It  is  found  likewise  in  the  more 
instinctive  brain  of  the  man  who,  compelled  to 
work  with  his  hands  for  a  living,  has  nevertheless 
by  the  very  process  compulsive  been  putting  thus 
some  fundamental  social  ideas  in  his  mind.  It 
is  at  the  questioning  heart  of  the  wearied  woman 
who  watches  out  long  nights  of  trouble  and  care, 
and  thinks  in  her  darkness  toward  some  light 
somewhere.  Mankind  is  studying  the  problem 
of  life  with  all  its  unequal  burdens.  There  has 
arisen  among  us,  too,  the  belief  (no  matter  just 
now  how  logical  its  arrival  may  or  may  not  be, 
the  fact  of  its  being  here  is  the  fact  we  must 
recognize)  that  this  big,  hard-hitting,  rich, 
resourceful,  army-drafting,  democracy-yearning 
age  is  the  age  to  settle  many  of  these  problems. 
To  this  I  must  be  bold  to  declare  my  faith  as  a 
churchman  in  the  solution  God  gave  me  to  de¬ 
clare.  I  believe  the  gospel  of  Christ  is  oppor¬ 
tune.  Nothing  is  too  hard  for  this  message.  “In 
the  newest  discoveries;  in  the  broadest  philan¬ 
thropies  ;  in  the  ripest  and  purest  politics ;  in  the 
truest  social  ideals,”  men  are  discovering  this 
Christian  message.  It  is  a  new  discovery  of  the 
old  and  oft-stated  truth  that  the  world  has  never 
lost  him,  never  outran  him,  never  passed  beyond 
his  range  of  influence.  He  has  come  on  with  us 


THE  CHURCH’S  MESSAGE 


95 


out  of  all  the  things  we  have  escaped  in  the  past, 
the  full  explanation  of  those  escapes.  He  is  the 
check  upon  all  wrong  and  the  inspiration  upon 
every  good. 

O  that  the  church  knew  better  how  to  declare 
such  a  message  ! 

Who  are  you?  "I  am  a  poor  woman,  who  has 
lost  the  way  and  gone  all  wrong.’’  Get  to  Christ, 
woman.  He  knows  all  about  you.  He  had  a 
case  the  like  of  which  yours  could  never  ap¬ 
proach.  “Thy  sins  which  are  many  are  all  for¬ 
given.  Go  and  sin  no  more,”  said  he  then,  and, 
saying  that,  he  was  talking  to  every  such  case 
forever. 

Who  are  you?  “I  sir,  am  a  thief,  and  con¬ 
demned  in  my  own  heart,  as  well  as  at  the  bar  of 
justice.”  Say,  “Lord,  remember  me” ;  and 
though  the  affairs  of  eternity  are  on  his  divine 
soul,  he  will  hear  you,  for  the  only  thing  he 
stopped  dying  on  the  cross  for  that  great  day, 
was  to  answer  a  thief  and  save  him. 

Who  are  you?  “Just  a  poor  little  unknown 
child.”  Come  to  this  Christ.  Make  your  way 
through  those  big  folks  about  you  there,  and 
lift  your  little  hand,  and  he  will  see  you,  and 
stooping  down  he  will  say  to  you  what  he  said 
once  to  childhood  forever,  “Of  such  is  the  king¬ 
dom  of  heaven.” 

Who  are  you?  “I  am  a  workingman,  and  a 
tired,  worn  soul.  I  am  wearied  of  work  and 


96 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


strife.  I  am  sick  of  the  turmoil  as  well  as  worn 
at  my  task.”  Well,  there  never  was  a  more 
beautiful  and  tender  word  breathed  into  the 
great  labor  problem  than  the  word  personal  of 
Jesus,  backed  up  by  all  heaven’s  ability  and  the 
eternal  heart  of  God,  “Come  unto  me  all  ye  that 
labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you 
rest.” 

Who  are  you?  “Oh,  I  am  a  rich  man,  troubled 
at  the  problems  my  riches  heap  upon  me.  When 
life  seems  in  reach  of  the  things  I  had  fancied  the 
fairest  of  all  things  to  possess,  I  find  no  pleasure 
in  possessing  them.  Yet  I  have  run  my  soul  tired 
and  broken  in  pursuit  of  all  this  I  now  possess 
in  dissatisfaction.”  Well,  come  to  Jesus  Christ. 
He  met  one  day  just  such  a  fine-privileged  rich 
man.  He  would  have  set  that  man  a  power  in 
the  world’s  story  forever,  had  he  but  heeded 
him  that  day.  As  it  was  he  chose  to  be  merely 
rich,  and  we  have  forgotten  his  name.  It  isn’t 
riches ;  it  is  life. 

Who  are  you?  Your  face  is  sad !  “Oh,  I  am  a 
mother  just  staggering  home  through  the  sorrow 
of  the  death  of  my  beloved  first-born.  The  sun 
seems  set  forever.  It  is  pitch  dark.  The  music 
of  life  is  hushed.  The  fragrance  of  living  has 
departed.  The  joy  of  the  world  is  stilled.”  Well, 
mother,  you  had  better  make  your  way  to  Christ 
soon  as  you  can.  He  has  been  comforting  such 
as  you  across  the  years.  He  can  reach  through 


THE  CHURCH’S  MESSAGE 


97 


sorrow.  He  even  carried  his  conquest  of  death 
personally  into  the  grave  and  through  it.  He 
was  dead,  and  is  now  alive  forevermore.  He  has 
the  words  of  eternal  life.  He  has  soothed  more 
broken  hearts,  started  a  new  song  in  more  mute 
hearts  of  mourning,  brought  more  actual  com¬ 
fort  to  human  distress,  lifted  more  sincere  hope 
over  the  graves  of  this  world’s  dead,  than  all 
other  forces  this  world  knows,  combined. 

I  must  not  multiply  cases.  I  have  noted  what 
I  have,  illustrative  merely  of  the  fact  that  Paul 
knew  what  he  was  backed  with  when  he  spoke 
his  confidence  of  this  great  gospel.  He  was  a 
world-figure  for  heroics.  Rome  held  the  world. 
Righteousness  seemed  to  have  no  voice.  Lust 

ruined  and  ravaged  all  that  was  pure.  The 

/ 

ties  of  the  family  were  scouted.  The  few  ground 
down  the  many.  Cruelty  was  a  boast.  Religion 
was  a  mockery.  No  one  dared  speak.  One  day 
a  strange  figure  came  trudging  wearily  along 
the  Appian  way.  It  was  a  way  marked  by  the 
chariot  wheels  of  victors  and  the  dragging 
chains  of  the  vanquished.  A  little,  emaciated, 
bent,  prison-bleached  captive  in  chains  would 
stir  slight  notice  there.  I  went  out  once  to  walk 
along  the  same  road  just  to  gather  courage  for 
my  own  life.  I  carefully  brushed  off  some  of 
the  old  stones  that  still  lie  in  the  pavement  and 
wondered  if  he  walked  just  there.  But  he  was 
not  noticed.  Aside  from  a  few  friends  who 


98 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


greeted  him  at  the  Three  Taverns  he  came  in 
unheralded.  No  one  knew  it  was  one  of  the 
world’s  great  day.  No  one  knew  the  little  pro¬ 
cession  meant  more  to  the  whole  world  than  all 
the  triumphal  parades  they  had  shouted  along 
there.  The  announcement  of  the  message  that 
was  to  free  the  slaves,  kill  the  riotous  self-indul¬ 
gence  and  change  the  whole  story  of  that 
wicked  city  was  making  ready  that  day.  Never 
such  audacity  and  confidence — the  strongest 
against  the  weakest.  The  tired  dust-covered 
prisoner  came  dragging  his  mocking  chains  up 
to  the  gates,  and  looking  full  into  the  face  of  its 
magnificent  misery  and  sin  cried  out,  “I  am  now 
ready  to  preach  the  gospel  to  Rome.”  That 
world-crisis  has  two  contributive  reasons  for  the 
boldness  of  the  messenger,  which  I  want  to  em¬ 
phasize  as  found  in  the  verse  following  our  text, 
which  make  sure  our  program  as  Christ’s  church, 
in  the  conquest  of  the  world. 

First.  An  efficient  message,  “The  power  of 
God  unto  salvation.”  It  is  power.  That  insures 
courage.  A  man  loses  heart  when  assigned  to  a 
task  he  cannot  perform.  The  reason  men  get 
discouraged  is  that  they  doubt  their  resources. 
Paul  was  not  afraid  he  had  a  greater  task  than 
power  with  which  to  meet  it.  He  was  always 
sure  of  God.  That  is  the  secret  of  confidence. 
Little  matters  it  what  may  come,  if  we  keep 
clear  in  our  conviction  that  we  have  God.  Just 


THE  CHURCH’S  MESSAGE 


99 


what  difficulty  may  mean  when  measured  beside 
omnipotence  we  have  no  way  to  determine.  But 
we  may  always  rest  sure  we  have  God,  and 
trouble  ourselves  the  least  as  to  what  difficulty 
may  be  ahead.  It  steadies  our  courage  to  really 
settle  ourselves  in  belief.  Nothing  needs  to  be 
driven  into  the  soul  of  the  church’s  life  to-day 
more  than  confidence  in  God.  The  world  needs 
to  be  made  to  feel  the  shock  of  the  presence  upon 
it  of  a  church  actually  endowed  with  God.  We 
have  a  strong  age  to  talk  to.  Someone  has 
diagnosed  our  day  as  troubled  over  the  fact  that 
intellectual  arrogance  and  groveling  discontent 
have  mated,  and  brought  forth  strange  creatures 
of  doubt  and  disbelief.  The  situation  challenges 
every  strength  we  possess.  Has  the  Christian 
Church  the  power,  or  are  we  gone  out  to  too  big 
a  task?  Is  it  once  more  a  story  of  Babel,  only 
written  in  modern  terms?  Have  we  undertaken 
an  impossible  tower?  I  know  a  bit  of  the  day’s 
eager  offerings.  I  know  somewhat  of  the  un¬ 
easiness  attendant  upon  our  economic  evolution. 
I  know  the  clamor  of  the  trades.  I  know  the 
strain  of  society  and  how  much  of  the  real 
strength  of  the  world  is  being  misspent  there. 
I  would  arise  amid  it  all  and  declare  my  unquali¬ 
fied  faith  in  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  as  the 
solution  divinely  devised. 

In  all  these  fierce  social  tangles,  whose  in¬ 
tricacies  seem  ever  to  increase  as  men  are  being 


100 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


huddled  together  in  classes,  cleaving  along  lines 
that  are  not  just  lines  of  cleavage  among  us;  in 
this  industrial  day's  expression  of  competitive 
commercialism,  where  the  weak  are  actually 
being  crowded  to  the  wall  simply  because  they 
are  weak,  and  not  because  they  have  not  a  fair 
right  to  live;  in  our  racial  jealousies,  that  have 
caused  men  to  court  racial  superiority  as  the 
criterion  of  world  progress  ;  in  our  national 
antipathies  that  have  unbalanced  the  whole 
world's  peace  and  threaten  now  to  destroy  our 
whole  civilization;  in  every  complication  this 
much-troubled  day  can  produce,  I  would  make 
bold  to  declare  my  confidence  in  this  gospel. 
There  is  nothing  too  hard  for  God's  church  to 
do,  if  it  is  God's  church.  We  are  set  at  a  world 
task,  and  the  creator  of  the  commission  to  which 
we  are  sent  is  behind  our  faithful  espousal  of  it, 
and  we  need  not  turn  back  from  its  exactions. 
It  is  related  of  that  great  faithful  missionary 
Doctor  Gordon  that  once  while  he  was  making 
an  ocean  voyage  to  visit  some  mission  outposts, 
the  ship  on  which  he  rode  was  becalmed.  They 
lay  for  many  hours  near  the  shores  of  some 
cannibal  islands.  The  captain,  in  desperation, 
finally  went  with  evident  apology  for  such  a 
suggestion,  and  not  without  demonstrated  doubt 
in  his  suggestion,  and  asked  the  preacher  if  he 
would  pray  for  a  wind.  Gordon  was  not  hesi¬ 
tant  in  replying,  but  took  the  captain  by  surprise 


THE  CHUKCH’S  MESSAGE 


101 


as  lie  said,  conditionally,  “I  will  be  glad  to  pray, 
if  you  will  hoist  the  sails,”  The  captain,  fearful 
of  what  interpretation  might  be  hurled  at  him 
by  his  ungodly  crew,  replied  in  argu men tative 
willingness  that  he  would  hoist  the  sail  if  Gor¬ 
don  would  start  any  sort  of  a  breeze.  The  man 
of  God  replied,  “No,  sir!  If  you  have  not  faith 
enough  to  get  ready  for  the  wind  I  will  not  offer 
one  word  of  petition  to  God.”  The  captain  said 
it  would  look  silly  to  raise  great  canvas  sails  in 
an  absolute  calm.  The  men  of  the  ship  could 
not  do  it  without  laughing.  The  cannibals  sit¬ 
ting  along  the  shores  would  laugh.  But  Gordon 
held  to  his  provision,  and  said:  “No  sails,  no 
prayer.  It  is  no  worse  to  look  silly  to  men  than 
to  stand  faithless  in  prayer  before  God.”  The 
desperation  increased,  however,  until  the  captain 
said  he  would  order  up  the  canvas.  As  the  great 
sails  began  to  be  unfurled,  Gordon  went  to  his 
room  in  the  hold  of  the  ship  and  shut  the  door 
in  the  darkness  to  pray.  For  some  time  he  was 
not  disturbed,  and  opened  his  soul  in  earnestness 
to  God.  There  was  a  strong  knock  on  his  door, 
and  an  inquiry  from  the  captain,  “Are  you  still 
praying,  sir?” 

“Yes,”  was  the  missionary’s  answer. 

“Well,  you  had  better  stop,”  came  the  reply, 
“for  we  have  more  wind  now  than  we  can 
handle.” 

It  is  never  a  question  of  power  within  reach 


102 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


of  the  church.  Every  failure  we  ever  make  must 
be  laid  some  other  where  than  to  the  lack  of 
power.  I  am  ready  to  preach  the  gospel,  for  it 
is  power. 

Second.  “It  is  the  power  of  God.”  That  we 
must  make  clear.  It  is  the  distinguishment  of 
the  church.  We  are  to  do  things  in  a  manner 
that  will  keep  that  fact  ever  before  the  eyes  of 
the  world.  The  actual  power  of  the  church  is 
not  such  as  can  be  calculated  by  ordinary  tables. 
The  only  claim  we  have  is  the  supernatural 
claim.  We  are  not  organized  and  set  in  the 
world  to  merely  raise  up  a  good  standard  of 
literature,  or  to  do  a  commendable  wmrk  in 
social  service  that  will  spend  itself  in  mere 
social  service.  We  do  stand  for  the  very  best 
there  is  to  be  had  in  the  equipment  of  life,  but 
a  veritable  devil  may  live  in  good  sanitary  quar¬ 
ters,  and  prosper  under  the  philanthropic  efforts 
of  mere  physical  ministry.  It  is  upon  the  dis¬ 
tinguishing  element  of  religious  influence  wre 
are  to  practice  our  wrork.  The  music  of  human 
redemption  is  the  sweetest  song  that  was  ever 
sung  into  the  human  story.  Humanity  unhelped 
of  God  is  prostrate  and  despairing.  Hope  comes 
with  the  message  of  religion.  People  are  not 
only  willing,  they  are  eager  to  go  to  church  if 
they  believe  their  Lord  is  there  to  help  them. 
Without  him  they  wrill  not  stay  to  hear  about 
some  mere  dream  of  a  better  day  hoped  for  and 


THE  CHURCH’S  MESSAGE 


103 


longed  for  in  our  need.  There  is  a  plain  but 
pointed  story  in  one  of  the  addresses  of  Doctor 
Hitchcock,  a  preacher  of  a  former  day,  who  had 
a  passion  that  never  dimmed  for  the  divine  mes¬ 
sage.  It  is  a  story  of  an  old  Bedouin  who  was 
lost  in  a  desert,  and  faced  the  full  liability  of 
that  perhaps  the  worst  lostness  physical  the 
world  knows.  He  had  been  without  food  till  his 
only  hope  lay  in  the  scant  possibility  that  some 
traveler  before  him  might  have  thrown  away 
the  bare  morsel  that  would  sustain  his  life.  At 
last  with  the  eager  eyes  of  desperation  that  be¬ 
held  the  mirage  of  a  fountain,  he  did  see  a 
traveler’s  bag.  To  his  demanding  hunger  it 
simply  must  contain  some  bread.  A  crust!  Just 
a  dried  morsel  of  bread !  Slowly  he  dragged  his 
famished  body  over  the  hot  sand  to  the  little 
leather  pouch,  and  grabbing  it  eagerly  with  his 
last  strength  poured  out  on  the  sun-glistened 
sand  a  stream  of  glorious  gems.  As  they  lay 
there  in  the  desert  deadness,  and  shone  in  the 
reflected  splendor  of  the  brightest  sun,  the  fam¬ 
ished  body  of  the  hungry  man  fell  over  upon  them 
with  the  cry  of  his  greatest  disappointment,  “Oh, 
they  are  only  diamonds!  Only  diamonds!”  I 
would  stand  amid  a  world  more  needy  of  God 
than  any  starving  desert-bound  man  was  ever  in 
need  of  bread  and  say,  God  forbid  that  such  a 
story  shall  ever  be  the  disappointed  accusation 
against  the  church  with  its  message  to  our  day. 


104 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


That  preacher  is  foolish  and  untrue  to  his 
trust,  and  being  a  divine  trust,  therefore  a  privi¬ 
lege,  who  fails  to  stand  square  to  the  deliver¬ 
ance  of  this  message.  The  power  of  God  is  our 
endowment.  It  is  all  we  need,  but  we  need  it 
all.  We  can  take  it  and  confidently  ask  for  a 
hearing,  knowing  we  have  a  word  of  prior  in¬ 
terest.  The  world  may  be  busy,  but  it  never  can 
get  too  busy,  to  set  this  message  aside.  Human 
workers  cannot  wear  too  weary  to  listen.  Hu¬ 
man  sorrow  cannot  strike  too  deep  to  listen. 
Human  joy  cannot  run  too  gladly  to  hear.  We 
can  ask  audience  of  the  world  without  apology. 
Our  message  was  framed  at  the  councils  of 
heaven  and  is  prior  in  every  condition  human 
life  can  know.  It  will  not  lessen  meaning  any¬ 
where.  Material  treasures  wall  still  abound. 
The  iron  will  be  rich  in  our  mines  and  our  fur¬ 
naces  fertile  in  their  flaming  treasures.  But 
something  else  w  ill  men  find,  and  the  living  voice 
of  the  message  wre  are  to  deliver  wTill  help  them 
to  find  their  souls.  A  new  ideal  will  spring  up 
before  an  un-ideal  age;  and  a  new  ambition  will 
arise  among  men  through  the  true  life  of  a 
church  living  passionately  up  to  the  privilege  of 
its  commission ;  and  a  new  light  will  break  across 
the  world  as  when  the  morning  has  driven  the 
night  away.  “I  am  ready,  as  much  as  in  me  is, 
to  preach  the  gospel.” 


VI 


THE  CHURCH’S  PROGRAM 

“Thy  kingdom  come.’7 — Matthew  6.  10. 

“Thy  kingdom  come!”  It  is  not  yet  here. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  it  will  some  day  be 
here.  The  coming  of  that  day  is  not  a  matter 
wholly  taken  over  by  our  God.  When  Jesus 
taught  us  to  pray  that  very  significant  prayer, 
he  knew  what  it  would  be  certain  to  mean  to  a 
world  into  whose  consciousness  it  had  once 
effectually  made  its  way  as  a  real  prayer.  Every 
prayer  that  is  genuine,  tends  constantly  to  shape 
itself  into  a  program  for  the  life  of  the  one  who 
prays  it.  There  is  liability  in  a  prayer.  It  can¬ 
not  be  framed  at  my  lips  and  then  forgotten  from 
my  life,  as  though  I  had  discharged  myself  from 
all  obligations  to  it  when  I  solemnly  said 
“Amen.”  I  want  now,  therefore,  to  look  stead¬ 
fastly  into  the  responsibility  which  is  entailed 
upon  the  Christian  Church,  taught  in  its  estab¬ 
lishment  to  pray  for  the  coming  of  the  kingdom 
of  God,  and  continuing  thus  down  the  centuries 
to  pray  it,  wondering  often  at  the  slow-footed 
answer.  I  want  us  to  look  honestly  at  our  duty 
as  disclosed  in  our  prayer,  rather  than  at  our 

105 


106 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


prayer  as  an  easy  method  of  having  done  for  ns 
something  that  will  doubtless  cost  us  most 
dearly.  The  idea  which  has  disclosed  itself  to  me 
in  two  distinct  interpretations  of  these  very  fa¬ 
miliar  words,  flashed  upon  my  mind  one  night  as 
I  sat  listening  to  a  burning  message  from  the 
eager  soul  of  a  missionary,  just  home  from  a  won¬ 
derful  field  of  work  where  he  had  been  laboring 
through  hard  but  hopeful  years,  seeking  to  estab¬ 
lish  the  faith  he  loved  among  some  benighted 
people.  The  thought  which  came  to  me  had 
nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  address  he  made 
save  as  it  might  be  related  in  extreme  applica¬ 
tion.  I  am  full  persuaded,  however,  that  in  the 
present  world-crisis  we  must  catch  the  full  mean¬ 
ing  of  the  fruited  consummation  of  the  flower  of 
our  faith.  It  is  a  great  thing  to  really  have  a 
faith.  Unless  we  have  a  genuine  faith  we  can¬ 
not  go  far  in  life.  The  meaning  of  life  soon  runs 
thin  to  him  who  cherishes  a  shallow  faith.  But 
a  faith  that  is  a  real  faith  demands  an  acceptance 
that  will  honor  it.  It  is  not  fair  to  faith  to  allow 
it  to  merely  remain  faith.  It  must  become  active 
to  results. 

The  other  day  I  was  passing  along  the  street 
in  the  downtown  district  of  our  city  in  one  of 
its  most  crowded  places.  I  saw  an  unusual 
crowd  of  people  seemingly  attracted  by  some 
curious  sight,  and  I  risked  adding  one  more  to 
the  congestion  to  make  sure  I  should  see  any- 


THE  CHUKCH’S  PKOGRAM 


107 


thing  worth  seeing.  In  the  center  of  the  fast- 
growing  crowd  sat  a  quiet,  contented  looking 
fellow,  a  picture  of  unconcern,  seated  on  the  high 
buggy-seat  of  an  old  horseless  carriage.  It  cer¬ 
tainly  did  look  like  the  original.  He  said  it  w  as. 
No  one  dared  dispute  him.  The  policeman  for 
traffic  had  to  order  the  fellow  to  drive  away.  He 
was  blocking  the  street.  Many  folks  thought 
they  were  trying  to  go  somewhere,  and  there 
were  so  many  folks  who  seemed  satisfied  with 
the  particular  where  of  that  old  machine  as  the 
place  they  sought,  that  other  destinations  could 
not  be  easily  attained.  There  was  not  another 
machine  along  the  machine-crowded  street  that 
stopped  traffic.  Here  at  the  home  of  automo¬ 
biles,  here  where  every  type  of  motor-machines 
made  make  familiar  sights  along  our  streets, 
and  extreme  types  merely  excite  a  passing  atten¬ 
tion,  that  hard-looking,  unpainted,  old,  rattling 
machine  caught  the  attention  of  everybody.  The 
drivers  of  beautiful  new  cars  stopped  to  look. 
Why?  Simply  because  that  crude  thing  was  the 
faith  of  a  man  formulated  first  into  an  active 
program.  It  was  the  vital  transportation  which 
made  possible  all  this  maze  of  machines  we  know 
so  well  to-day.  I  saw  the  first  mowing-machine 
ever  made.  It  was  a  hard-looking,  weather-beaten 
old  piece  of  work.  We  to-day  could  scarce  think 
out  so  crude  an  old  machine  as  it  was.  It  sat 
close  beside  the  latest  model  machine  the  factory 


108 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


could  make.  The  new  product  was  mounted  in 
shining  brass,  varnished  like  a  parlor  chair,  and 
had  every  joint  mounted  on  steel  balls.  But  the 
old  machine  caught  all  the  interest.  The  spec¬ 
tators  circled  about  it  all  the  time,  because  it 
was  the  first  concrete  expression  of  the  forward- 
looking  faith  of  a  man,  as  he  put  his  faith  into  an 
embodiment  that  now  has  run  the  world  round 
and  helped  feed  the  hungry  millions  of  mankind. 

I  seek  now  to  find  a  putting  for  that  great  fact 
religiously.  It  takes  some  time  for  great  faith 
to  dominate  a  man’s  life.  You  cannot  find  a 
man  easily  and  quickly  transformed  around  a 
great  faith  into  its  actual  and  logical  expression. 
That  faith  must  first  crystallize  his  very  soul. 
It  takes  centuries  for  a  great  faith  to  saturate  a 
whole  race  of  mankind.  But  God  is  patient,  and 
he  has  mankind  as  his  objective  rather  than 
some  fragmentary  race  of  folks,  or  some  nervous 
generation  of  people.  God  abides  down  the 
years  and  patiently  matures  his  people  into  a 
maturity  that  surely  leads  toward  his  program. 
Dim  though  it  yet  may  be,  in  the  uncertain  at¬ 
mosphere  that  clings  round  our  world  in  these 
stormy  days,  I  yet  believe  we  can  discern  signs 
that  the  great  faith  that  has  weathered  so  many 
centuries,  with  ail  they  have  been  able  to  hurl 
against  it,  is  now  becoming  the  dominant  pro¬ 
gram  of  humanity.  Many  have  had  to  cling  to 
their  faith,  merely  as  faith,  and  go  down  in  a 


THE  CHURCH’S  PROGRAM 


109 


troubled  sea.  Some  time  ago  the  whole  world 
was  thrilled  by  that  daring  Australian,  Hawker, 
as  he  cut  from  beneath  him  every  hope  so  far 
as  men  knew,  and  started  out,  winging  his  way 
over  the  ocean,  dependent  upon  the  actual  ac¬ 
complishment  of  his  goal  as  the  only  deliver¬ 
ance  before  him.  As  he  faded  from  the  vision 
of  the  watchers  on  the  shore  and  sank  below  the 
horizon,  beyond  which  was  so  many  miles  of 
watered  horizon,  he  put  the  thrill  of  risk  for 
our  ideal  glowing  in  all  our  breasts.  There 
have  been  a  great  many  since  Abraham  who 
have  dared  to  follow  the  risk  heroic,  of  his  farth¬ 
est  going,  when  he  went  out  not  knowing 
whither  he  went.  The  travelers  have  not  all 
arrived  at  their  destination,  so  far  as  men  know. 
But  we  have  come  to  the  place  in  the  history  of 
mankind,  I  am  sure,  when  the  faith  of  Christian¬ 
ity  shall  refuse  longer  to  wait  for  weather  con¬ 
ditions  and  shall  calmly  proceed  to  its  challeng¬ 
ing  task. 

First.  “Thy  kingdom  come,”  becomes  my 
prayer.  Jesus  knew  how  very  essential  it  was 
that  whatever  was  to  be  accomplished  in  service 
in  the  world  must  first  become  the  earnest  prayer 
of  those  who  are  to  do  it.  The  Kingdom  could 
not  be  risked  on  earth  among  men,  unless  it  first 
became  the  great  desire  of  men.  There  is  much 
more  in  prayer  than  a  mere  pleading  on  our  part 
to  persuade  God  to  do  a  thing  we  simply  desire 


110 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


to  have  done.  I  fear  there  are  many  who  have 
interpreted  prayer  as  an  economical  way,  really 
as  so  economical  a  method  as  to  tend  to  cheap¬ 
ness,  to  get  something  done  which  otherwise  they 
might  have  to  do  themselves.  If  I  can  but  en¬ 
list  God  to  do  my  work  for  me,  I  shall  be  willing 
to  make  that  an  object  of  my  prayer.  How  weak 
and  unworthy  such  motive  is!  Jesus  established 
the  basis  of  prayer  in  his  people  in  order  to  set 
them  on  fire  with  a  great  purpose  which  was 
to  be  heroically  attained  one  triumphant  day.  If 
“Thy  kingdom  come1’  becomes  the  united  prayer 
of  all  his  people,  they  will  more  and  more  become 
enlisted  in  genuine  and  expectant  interest  in  its 
coming.  A  basal  zeal  in  that  prayer  is  what  has 
always  made,  and  makes  to-day,  the  genuine  mis¬ 
sionary.  Nothing  but  missions  can  be  logical 
for  folks  who  pray  as  Jesus  taught  us  to  pray. 
We  must  not  forget  that  vital  truth  as  couched 
by  someone  in  a  sentence  to  live — “It  was  not 
the  church  that  made  the  gospel,  but  it  wTas  the 
gospel  that  made  the  church.”  That  is  founda¬ 
tional.  In  all  the  great  history  of  the  church 
thus  far,  this  great  petition  has  been  grounding 
itself  deep  in  our  souls  as  a  convincing  prayer. 
Through  great  years,  and  long  hard  years  too, 
and  across  sometimes  staggering  centuries,  it  has 
been  necessary  to  lead  our  people  on,  while  this 
settled  deeper  into  their  lives.  The  yearning  for 
the  experience  of  the  thing  for  which  we  have 


THE  CHURCH’S  PROGRAM 


111 


prayed  lias  constantly  increased.  The  history 
of  the  church  thus  far  has  been  largely  written 
around  a  prayerful  waiting  for  this  consumma¬ 
tion.  The  great  martyrs,  whose  stories  we  read 
with  gratitude  as  we  trace  their  passing  through 
flame  and  smoke,  were  leaving  undying  testi¬ 
mony  of  the  establishment  of  the  faith.  Fire 
could  not  scare  it  out  of  the  hearts  of  folks  who 
had  it.  Nero  could  not  hound  it  out  of  women 
and  children,  even  though  he  set  mad,  wild,  hun¬ 
gry  lions  upon  them  to  kill  them  for  a  public 
spectacle ;  still  the  faith.  The  world  then  settled 
down  into  a  long,  maybe  monotonous,  period  of 
unconcern,  to  see  if  folks  who  believed  in  God 
could  actually  cling  to  their  belief  through  years 
and  even  generations  of  disinterestedness.  That 
was  a  hard  test.  There  were  many  who  faltered. 
It  is  harder  for  faith  to  survive  all  lack  of  in¬ 
terest  than  to  live  triumphantly  through  the 
fire  of  persecution.  But  the  prayer  never  died 
out.  Earnest  men  and  women,  all  down  the 
years,  and  down  all  the  years,  have  agonized  to 
God,  and  called  with  passionate  souls  through 
the  dull  sustained  pain  of  an  unconcerned  mul¬ 
titude  about  them :  “Thy  kingdom  come !  O  God, 
Thy  kingdom  come!”  Here  and  there  have  al¬ 
ways  been  found  noble  men  and  women,  who 
have  been  willing  to  sacrifice  position  and  riches, 
or  whatever  was  necessary,  just  to  help  set  the 
evidences  of  the  Kingdom’s  faith  in  countries 


112 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


far  and  near.  The  history  of  this  three-worded 

Is 

text  of  ours  now  has  truly  been  written  in  hero¬ 
ics  all  down  the  human  story,  but  it  has  thus  far 
not  advanced  beyond  the  position  of  a  prayer. 
A  prayer  which  has  in  it  an  aim  that  can  be 
comprehended  in  any  degree  by  a  purpose  of  the 
one  who  prays,  must  wait  the  development  of 
that  point  at  which  the  prayer  becomes  a  con¬ 
viction.  This  leads  me  to  my  second  interpreta¬ 
tion,  the  matter  I  more  particularly  desire  to 
say,  and  to  say  which  I  have  said  what  I  already 
have  said. 

Second.  “Thy  kingdom  come”  must  not  remain 
merely  my  prayer;  it  must  become  my  program. 
That  is  the  travail  of  soul  which  has  been  upon 
the  church  in  late  years,  as  it  has  been  realizing 
the  responsibility  which  attended  the  transfor¬ 
mation  of  a  genuine  prayer  into  an  announced 
campaign.  We  have  prayed  our  prayer  into  a 
conviction.  Men  who  pray  as  Jesus  taught  them 
to  pray  cannot  keep  that  prayer  on  bended  knee 
in  mere  waiting,  but  must  arise  to  the  full  as¬ 
sumption  of  whatever  the  coming  of  an  answer 
will  entail. 

There  happened  a  few  years  ago  at  Niagara 
Falls  an  event  which  I  am  sure  bore  all  the  logic 
of  the  years,  and  gave  evidence  of  new  respon¬ 
sibility.  It  was  the  first  visible  endeavor  to  ex¬ 
press  the  growing  passion  for  the  conquest  of 
the  world  that  soon  became  a  consuming  flame 


THE  CHURCH'S  PROGRAM 


113 


across  our  whole  church.  The  suggestion  for 
raising  a  huge  sum  of  money  at  a  time  when  the 
war  was  monopolizing  the  great  financial  forces 
of  the  world  was  declared  to  be  beyond  all  rea¬ 
son.  But  a  selected  conference  was  called,  and 
a  small  company  of  earnest  men  and  women 
dared  to  unstop  their  ears  and  listen  to  the  cry 
of  a  whole  world’s  need.  They  declared  the  time 
had  come  for  the  transposition  of  their  prayer 
into  an  actual  program.  They  were  meeting  in 
a  hotel  at  Niagara  Falls,  from  whose  windows 
the  flying  mists  of  the  great  cataract  could  be 
seen,  and  into  whose  halls  the  roar  of  the  run¬ 
away  power  made  constant  echo.  As  the  com¬ 
pany  prayed  and  talked  together  there  the  in¬ 
fluence  of  the  great  falls  forced  itself  into  their 
consideration  and  molded  much  the  phraseology 
they  used.  The  editorial  columns  of  The  Chris¬ 
tian  Advocate  recorded  a  doubly  meaningful  in¬ 
cident,  which  because  of  the  death  of  the  great 
Christian  of  whom  it  is  recorded,  has  now  be¬ 
come  doubly  significant  to  us  all.  The  final  talk 
of  the  convention  was  made  by  Bishop  Bash- 
ford,  and  it  proved  to  be  almost  his  last  speech. 
He  looked  so  frail  as  his  tall  form  arose.  His 
great  shoulders  were  visibly  bowed  under  the  bur¬ 
den  of  China  which  he  had  so  long  borne.  His 
body  was  racked  by  a  severe  cough  which  at  times 
well  nigh  choked  his  utterance.  He  spoke  very 
deliberately,  and  evidently  was  overwhelmed 


114 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


with  the  seriousness  of  the  decision  about  to  be 
made.  His  closing  words  carry  to-day  an  un¬ 
usual  sacredness,  for  he  being  dead  yet  speaketh. 
“I  trust,”  said  he,  “that  no  man  will  vote  for 
this  program  unless  he  is  willing  to  back  it  with 
whatever  personal  cost  it  may  come  to  mean, 
even  to  the  giving  of  life.  With  that  under¬ 
standing  I  am  willing  to  vote  for  it  with  both  of 
my  hands.”  There  stood  one  of  the  most  heroic 
characters  of  all  the  missionary  story,  with  his 
great  physical  frame  actually  trembling  to  col¬ 
lapse,  with  both  hands  solemnly  uplifted  voting 
to  make  his  long  prayer  the  church’s  program. 
“Thy  kingdom  come!”  My  faith  never  was 
stronger  that  that  is  the  great  growing  in¬ 
tention  of  the  church  than  it  is  now.  I  am  not 
worried  over  the  defeat  and  break-down  of  the 
church.  I  do  not  believe  Christianity  is  failing 
in  the  world.  There  never  has  been  in  my  knowl¬ 
edge  a  time  w^hen  the  Church  of  Christ  wras  so 
thoroughly  alive  to  its  task,  and  had  with  such 
determination  set  itself  to  bring  in  the  victory 
of  our  Lord  and  his  kingdom  as  to-day.  If  there 
be  any  who  in  espousing  the  cause  of  the  church 
to-day  think  they  can  avoid  an  actual  forward 
march  to  the  very  front  lines  in,  a  determined 
campaign  against  the  intrenchment  of  every¬ 
thing  that  is  wrong  in  this  world,  they  are 
doomed  to  disappointment.  You  cannot  wear 
the  name  “Christian”  and  be  at  ease  in  Zion  in 


THE  CHURCH’S  PROGRAM 


115 


days  such  as  these.  We  have  not  been  called  to 
support  and  maintain  the  bulwarks  of  any  ex¬ 
isting  order  that  may  not  incorporate  the  whole 
truth  of  our  Lord.  We  are  the  rather  commis¬ 
sioned  everywhere  to  be  heralds  of  a  better 
order  which  is  to  be.  These  are  days  when 
Christianity  must  work  out  its  program.  Thy 
kingdom  come,  O  God!  I  accept  the  task  it 
means.  I  do  not  propose  that  my  prayer  shall 
be  made  the  sum  of  my  effort.  “Thy  kingdom 
shall  come”  has  now  become  the  determination 
of  my  faith.  Whenever  my  prayer  shall  become 
my  faith  and  assume  the  desire  it  expresses  as 
its  program,  I  expect  soon  to  be  on  the  march.  I 
know  we  all  feel  the  wound  and  hurt  of  the  war, 
but  it  has  shocked  many  people  into  a  new  sense 
of  their  spiritual  condition.  We  had  all  grown 
satisfied  with  a  small  horizon  made  of  brick  and 
stone,  and  laid  down  narrow  city  streets.  To¬ 
day,  as  by  some  fell  blow  of  terrific  explosion, 
those  walls  are  down  flat.  Maybe  through  tears, 
but  looking  up  through  vistas  shrouded  with 
sorrow,  and  hung  round  with  tragedy  supreme, 
folks  who  had  grown  callous  to  the  best  interests 
of  others  have  now  found  out  that  there  is  a 
larger  and  a  better  world  around  them  than 
they  had  ever  dreamed  of. 

Doctor  Jowett  has  said  onewhere,  that  “behind 
and  beneath  all  the  tasks  and  necessities,  and 
the  common  groundwork  of  them  all,  in  which 


11G 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


they  are  all  rooted,  is  our  modern  sin,  spreading 
like  our  soil  throughout  the  world,  the  bed  and 
groundwork  of  all  our  deepest  woes.”  All  that 
does  not  strike  proof  into  my  conviction  that  the 
church  has  failed.  For  when  has  the  world  in 
all  its  history  known  all  this  as  any  less  true? 
Sin  is  not  modern.  Such  things,  arisen  to  our 
vision  as  Doctor  Jowett  notes,  are  at  least  evi¬ 
dence  that  we  see  them,  and  our  feeling  toward 
them  is  sure  proof  that  our  program  is  in  direct 
collision  with  every  wrong.  The  world  is  call¬ 
ing  for  the  fullest  evidence  of  our  faith  in  re¬ 
deeming  grace.  That,  call  comes  challenging  all 
of  us  who  have  dared  to  pray,  “Thy  kingdom 
come,”  and  expects  us  to  passionately  set  our¬ 
selves  to  help  bring  it  in.  That  call  has  now 
arisen  from  what  was  once  a  mere  dull  hunger 
and  conscious  need  to  a  veritable  clamor.  It 
comes  swelling  up  to  us  from  the  unrest  and 
emptiness  which  is  in  our  age.  Everywhere, 
from  lands  far  away,  from  the  supposed  centers 
of  active  progress,  and  from  people  whose  living 
heretofore  has  been  a  dull  satisfaction  of  ignor¬ 
ance  as  to  the  actions  of  other  people,  the  call 
has  now  arisen.  They  are  opening  their  century- 
dulled  eyes  to  see  and  their  age-bound  lips  to 
speak.  Everywhere,  everywhere  the  world  of 
men  is  calling — calling  out  of  long-endured  de¬ 
lusions,  calling  through  deep  cravings  and 
desires,  calling  from  weariness  and  sin.  There 


THE  CHURCH’S  PROGRAM 


117 


cannot  be  any  questioning  of  this  by  any  honest 
Christian  who  will  listen  to-day.  I  simply  arise 
to  ask,  how  fares  the  church  before  such  a  crisis? 
Is  it  ready?  Is  it  ready  in  you ?  Is  there  among 
us  now  that  boldness  which  will  eagerly  respond 
to  the  thrill  of  such  a  call,  or  do  we  find  ourselves 
moving,  where  we  do  move,  in  an  evident  reluc¬ 
tance  that  testifies  to  timidity  and  even  fear? 
Is  the  church  staggering  in  doubt  and  unbelief, 
or  is  it  leaping  forward  in  the  glorious  inspira¬ 
tion  of  a  quenchless  hope?  These  are  questions 
that  should  be  granted  the  testing  place  at  all 
our  conduct  now.  Personally,  I  never  felt  so 
much  confidence  in  our  cause  as  I  feel  to-day. 
I  am  ashamed  of  myself  and  of  my  little  and 
very  evident  unworthiness,  but  I  am  greatly 
delighted  in  my  Christ,  and  in  the  power  of  his 
great  gospel.  I  believe  profoundly  in  the  pro¬ 
gram  which  is  written  in  our  great  prayer.  I 
would  not  perpetuate  at  my  lips  a  prayer  which 
I  feared  to  make  my  program,  nor  would  I  accept 
a  program  for  my  life  that  was  not  first  the  sin¬ 
cere  prayer  of  my  heart.  Thy  kingdom  come! 
O  God,  what  can  I  do  to  help  it  on?  I  know  the 
difficulty  of  the  day.  I  know  the  fight  before 
us.  I  know  there  are  many  who  are  discouraged 
and  sad,  and  who  cannot  see  how  we  can  ever 
hope  to  win  this  world.  But  none  of  these  things 
confound  my  faith.  I  have  never  had  a  faith 
which  was  founded  on  an  easy  ideal  to  attain. 


118 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


I  have  a  faith  which  is  founded  alone  upon  the 
character  of  an  omnipotent  God.  It  is  all  I 
have  to  keep  up  my  courage,  but  I  cannot  think 
of  any  other  basis  that  could  remain.  And  with 
that  faith  I  would  take  my  stand  now.  One  day 
when  war  was  at  its  worst,  and  discouragement 
was  running  boldly  against  many  a  warm  heart 
in  Europe,  I  met  a  wonderful  soldier,  from  whom 
with  difficulty  I  got  fragments  of  the  deed  that 
had  set  his  picture  everywhere  about  England, 
and  had  prompted  the  King  to  decorate  him  with 
the  Victoria  Cross.  I  met  him  one  evening  in  a 
camp  of  Scotch  soldiers  shortly  after  he  had  been 
decorated.  The  incident  of  his  bravery  wras 
brought  about  in  the  earlier  experiences  with 
poisoned  gas.  Gas-masks  were  not  yet  well  per¬ 
fected,  and  men  could  not  long  sustain  their  posi¬ 
tions  under  the  flow  of  the  deadly  fumes.  A  very 
important  position  had  been  under  gas  for  some 
time.  The  dogged  bravery  of  those  Scotch  troops 
clung  out  there  and  choked  and  gasped  toward 
unconsciousness,  and  refused  to  give  up.  All  the 
men  were  dull  and  stupid.  An  order  came  along 
the  line  to  go  over  the  top  for  a  charge.  The  men 
simply  couldn’t  go.  They  staggered  in  inability. 
Then  Daniel  Laidlow,  as  plain  looking  an  old 
Scotch  piper  as  ever  hugged  the  bag  of  a  bagpipe, 
arose  from  all  the  obscurity  in  which  he  thus 
far  had  lived,  and  took  his  place  among  the 
world's  foremost  list  of  brave  men.  He  flung  off 


THE  CHURCH’S  PROGRAM 


119 


his  mask,  and  leaped  upon  the  exposed  parapet 
where  shot  and  shell  whistled  and  roared,  and 
marched  back  and  forth  before  those  strangling 
men,  playing  the  most  thrilling  airs  he  knew, 
until  he  literally  played  them  right  up  out  of 
those  gas-filled  trenches,  and  oyer  the  top  and 
out  to  a  full  victory.  O  men  and  women  to-day, 
with  Christ’s  name  on  our  lips  in  declared  faith ; 
if  sometimes  the  depression  of  the  hard  task 
does  seem  to  come  down  upon  us,  and  crush  us 
into  a  feeling  of  helplessness,  and  we  lie  prone 
and  listless  before  the  great  crying  duty  just 
ahead,  can  we  not  see  this  great  Hero  of  ours, 
“Whose  name  is  above  every  name,”  “Whose  we 
are  and  Whom  we  serve,”  marching  fearlessly 
and  ever  confident  before  us,  teaching  us  to  pray, 
“Thy  kingdom  come,”  in  order  that  w^e  may  go 
out  in  unswerving  loyalty  to  apply  our  lives 
and  our  best  endeavors  to  make  “Thy  kingdom 
come”  also  the  passion  of  our  utmost  effort? 


VII 


THE  CHURCH’S  ATTRACTION 

“Thus  saith  the  Lord  of  hosts;  In  those  days  it  shall 
come  to  pass,  that  ten  men  shall  take  hold,  out  of  all 
languages  of  the  nations,  even  shall  take  hold  of  the  skirt 
of  him  that  is  a  Jew,  saying,  We  will  go  with  you:  for 
we  have  heard  that  God  is  with  you.” — Zechariah  8.  23. 

There  is  religious  dynamic  in  that  verse.  It  is 
one  of  the  clearest  verses  on  evangelism  to  be 
found  in  the  Bible.  It  is  primary  in  its  prin¬ 
ciples.  Not  because  they  were  Jews,  but  because 
God  was  with  them,  was  to  be  their  attractive 
power.  Those  Jews  were  all  too  liable  to  pride 
over  their  own  peculiar  position.  They  were 
wont  to  bask  in  their  interpreted  favors,  as  if 
they  bore  credentials  of  personal  value.  It  was 
a  constant  effort  to  keep  them  in  right  perspec¬ 
tive  toward  God.  The  argument  and  value  of 
this  verse  lie  in  the  contention  that  the  only 
dynamic  of  church  progress  and  success  always 
has  been,  and  always  will  be  found,  in  the  fact 
that  God  is  in  it.  There  is  peculiar  fitness 
in  emphasis  of  this  fact  to-day.  There  has  been 
started  a  keen  interest  in  the  world  about  us,  in 
an  apparent  effort  of  the  church  to  cater  for  at- 

120 


THE  CHURCH’S  ATTRACTION  121 


tention  in  other  and  ordinary  ways.  What  will 
turn  the  eyes  of  the  people  to  the  church?  is 
being  answered  by  those  to-day  who  would  with 
the  skill  of  mere  advertisement  find  the  catch¬ 
words  or  lines  that  will  actually  fill  the  pews 
and  thus  justify  the  endeavor.  I  would  not 
oppose  the  method,  if  any  shall  choose  to  use  it ; 
I  would  only  ask  that  the  advertisements  be 
strictly  confined  to  the  real  values  we  have.  I 
cannot  think  of  a  greater  advertisement  a  com¬ 
pany  could  have  before  any  community  than  that 
which  would  make  actually  apparent  to  that 
community  the  fact  that  among  those  folks 
called  church  folks  God  was  always  present. 
That  is  not  difficult  to  discover.  That  does  not 
require  expensive  campaign  to  publish.  It  is 
strange  how  God  being  around  cannot  be  hid. 
It  is  encouraging  to  know  that  wherever  he  is, 
is  an  attractive  place  for  folks.  Attraction  is 
religion’s  best  compulsion.  You  cannot  argue 
religion  into  men.  You  cannot  drive  people  to 
church.  You  can  win  men  to  religion.  You  can 
attract  folks  to  church. 

Not  long  ago  there  died  out  of  our  Christian 
work  in  this  world  a  man  whose  influence  has 
been  of  the  rarest  power.  He  lived  his  great 
life  in  close  contact  with  human  derelicts.  At 
his  funeral  the  preacher,  Doctor  Chapman,  said, 
“If  greatness  is  to  be  measured  by  a  passion  for 
souls,  by  a  spirit  of  love,  and  by  a  Christlikeness 


122 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


in  all  that  he  said,  or  did,  or  thought,  then  I  say 
I  believe  Samuel  Hadley  was  easily  one  of  the 
greatest  men  in  the  city  of  New  York,  if  not  in 
the  whole  of  the  United  States.”  A  few  years 
ago  I  was  speaking  at  a  convention  in  a  Western 
city,  and  Mr.  Hadley  was  sitting  on  the  platform, 
in  readiness  to  speak  at  the  close  of  my  words. 
The  platform  of  the  church  had  been  enlarged  to 
make  room  for  a  chorus  of  singers.  The  exten¬ 
sion  had  been  made  with  heavy  planks  over  the 
altar  rail  and  across  the  front  aisle,  and  up  very 
close  to  the  first  pews,  allowing  the  occupation  of 
those  seats  by  those  who  were  willing  thus  to 
sit  with  their  heads  just  showing  above  the  plat¬ 
form.  Two  personal  friends  of  mine  who  had 
come  from  another  city  only  for  the  personal 
element  of  our  acquaintance,  and  having  come 
in  after  the  congregation  had  gathered,  were 
ushered  into  the  very  front  seat.  They  were 
professional  musicians,  the  lady  an  organist  and 
the  gentleman  an  accomplished  musical  director. 
They  were  cultured  people,  and  very  particular 
about  the  form  of  religious  service.  Their  musi¬ 
cal  sense  was  unusually  sensitive.  They  had 
never  heard  of  Sam  Hadley,  and  knew  nothing 
of  the  great  message  of  his  life  and  ministry. 
When  I  had  finished  speaking,  and  before  my 
friends  knew  what  was  to  happen,  the  great 
mission  preacher  went  limping  on  his  big  iron 
shoe  out  to  the  front  of  the  platform  and  began 


THE  CHURCH’S  ATTRACTION  123 


to  sing  in  his  wonderfully  poor  voice,  and  in  a 
very  unmusical  manner,  a  quite  unmusical  tune, 

“Oh,  it  is  wonderful, 

Very,  very  wonderful. 

How  Jesus  came. 

And  came  to  save  me.” 

I  saw  my  friends  sink  in  their  cultured  concep¬ 
tion  of  a  religious  song,  and  when  the  singer  had 
finished,  their  heads  were  not  visible  from  where 
I  sat.  When  the  last  dull  note  died  away,  the 
singer  commented  on  the  people  not  knowing 
such  a  good  tune,  and  then  told  one  of  those 
wonderful  stories  of  the  power  of  God  to  save 
poor  sinful  men.  Then  he  said,  “Now  sing  it  with 
me;”  and  in  the  same  poor  voice  led  a  number 
who  had  caught  the  rhythm  of  the  verse  as  they 
sang  it  a  second  time.  Then  he  told  another 
story.  It  was  one  of  those  heart-deep  stories 
he  knew  so  well  how  to  tell,  and  as  he  told  it  the 
great  audience  was  wonderfully  moved,  and 
when  he  stamped  his  big  iron  shoe  and  called  on 
everyone  to  sing  the  song,  a  great  chorus  went 
up  from  that  congregation,  and  I  saw  the  heads 
of  my  friends  coming  up  again.  Then  Hadley 
told  a  yet  more  wonderful  story  of  the  rescue 
of  a  poor  wreck  of  a  man,  and  the  people  cried 
till  a  great  sob  swept  over  the  entire  audience, 
and  that  song  caught  hold  of  every  heart  and 
swept  up  till  I  am  sure  the  choirs  of  heaven  must 


124 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


have  caught  the  genuine  harmony  of  the  simple 
strain,  and  there  on  the  front  seat,  with  the  tears 
pouring  down  their  faces,  sat  my  friends  singing 
with  all  their  hearts, 

“Oh,  it  is  wonderful, 

Very,  very  wonderful. 

How  Jesus  came. 

And  came  to  save  me.” 

They  experienced  the  attraction  of  a  God-filled 
individual.  The  secret  of  potent  evangelism  is 
there.  Not  that  we  shall  be  compelled  to  per¬ 
suade  men  by  argument.  Not  that  we  shall  be 
reduced  to  any  of  a  variety  of  methods  to  gain 
attention,  but  that  the  practice  of  the  presence 
of  God  shall  be  the  sufficient  attraction  of  the 
church.  It  always  has  been,  it  is  to-day,  and  I 
doubt  not  always  will  remain,  that  the  greatest 
power  the  church  has  for  its  campaign  of  the 
world  is  the  endowment  of  God  in  its  life. 

We  are  not  suffering  for  new  ideas.  The  pul¬ 
pit  is  not  in  need  of  new  ideas  to  preach.  What 
we  all  need,  people  and  preachers,  is  power  to 
help  us  realize  a  high  individual  Christian  life, 
power,  as  someone  has  said,  “that  will  make  us 
daring  enough  to  act  out  all  we  have  seen  in 
vision,  all  we  have  learned  in  principle  from 
Jesus  Christ  our  Lord.”  We  are  each  called  to 
offer  to  the  world  the  irresistible  attraction  of 
a  Goff-filled  life.  We  have  in  that  call  the  full 


THE  CHURCH’S  ATTRACTION  125 


right  to  presume  that  when  that  shall  have  been 
done  we  shall  actually  draw  others  to  him. 

Let  me  call  that  last  remark  my  first  division 
in  consideration  of  this  theme.  The  primary 
power  of  the  winning  church  is  the  consecrated 
individual.  Of  that  prime  essential  we  must 
never  lose  sight.  There  is  no  substitute.  It  is 
not  needed  that  we  argue  against  any  other  good 
power  in  order  to  support  this.  It  is  simply  the 
acknowledgment  of  the  superiority  of  Christian 
life  in  the  effectual  propagation  of  the  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  for  the  regeneration  of  humanity. 
It  is  always  an  interesting  roll  call,  that  regis¬ 
ters  the  names  of  those  whose  clear  impress  has 
been  put  upon  the  plastic  life  of  this  world.  If 
I  should  be  permitted  to  make  a  word,  I  would 
term  these  vital  lives  enhumaned  gospels.  Why 
not  start  a  new  word  anyhow?  By  whose 
authority  do  words  arrive?  Enhumaned  gospels 
are  the  powerful  points  of  contact  of  a  saving 
gospel  to  a  lost  world.  If  we  lack  the  peculiar 
potent  power  of  individual  consecration  in  ser¬ 
vice,  we  lack  the  real  spirit  wherein  life  is  put 
into  all  our  forms.  The  evident  power  of  the 
church  is  its  God-filled  people.  Let  the  world, 
amid  all  it  knows  by  keen  experience  of  life,  meet 
the  soul  that  breathes  the  spirit  of  Jesus  Christ; 
see  him  move  through  familiar  facts  of  compli¬ 
cate  difficulty;  watch  him  in  heart-rending  sor¬ 
row,  shot  through  with  biting  pain,  but  sus- 


126 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


tained  and  soothed  by  an  unfaltering  trust. 
Let  men  see  such  a  life,  sipping  joy  and  aflame 
with  the  presence  of  God,  and  they  are  drawn 
to  religion.  It  is  the  God-filled  soul  that  draws 
men  and  women  to  the  Kingdom.  The  blessed 
church !  God  knows  I  love  it  with  all  my  heart. 
It  affords  me  the  companionships  I  most  highly 
prize.  I  will  give  my  all  for  its  work.  It  can 
have  my  life,  and  every  talent  I  possess,  and  all 
the  regret  I  feel  in  making  such  a  gift  is  that  it 
is  so  little  and  so  poor.  I  love  the  Church  of 
God.  But  the  church  as  the  church  does  not 
touch  men  for  God.  It  is  always  the  individual. 
All  our  history  is  ablaze  with  that.  It  is  demon¬ 
strated  as  the  evangelistic  dynamic  all  down  the 
church’s  story.  I  remember  the  account  I  saw 
of  the  burial  service  of  an  aged  minister.  He 
had  finished  his  life-work  of  many  years,  in  a 
community  that  knew  the  influence  of  his 
presence.  A  great  company  of  appreciative 
folks  filled  the  church  where  loving  hands  that 
had  been  taught  in  kindness  by  him  had  borne 
his  casket.  Some  brethren  of  the  ministry  had 
spoken  of  his  noble  manhood.  They  praised  his 
fine,  unselfish  ministry  of  half  a  century  on  com¬ 
paratively  small  charges.  They  cited  the  beauti¬ 
ful  consecration  of  his  life  as  a  contented,  happy, 
consistent  winner  of  souls.  Then  a  man  arose 
from  the  audience,  and  walking  impressively 
down  the  aisle,  stopped  before  the  flower-covered 


THE  CHURCH'S  ATTRACTION  127 


casket,  and  picked  out  from  beneath  the  beauti¬ 
ful  pieces  a  little  unarranged  withered  bouquet, 
and  holding  it  high  that  all  might  see,  he  said : 
“This  bouquet,  unnoticed  by  almost  all  of  you, 
is  the  beautiful  confirmation  of  all  the  tributes 
which  have  been  paid  to  this  good  man,  whose 
body  we  come  now  to  bury.  When  this  Chris¬ 
tian  gentleman  came  to  live  in  this  town,  he 
was  everywhere  effectively  zealous  in  his  efforts 
to  win  souls  to  God.  One  day  as  he  was  passing 
along  he  heard  a  lad  who  was  playing  at  a  game 
in  the  street  swearing  harshly.  He  went  inter¬ 
estedly  and  kindly  to  the  boy,  and  in  a  manner 
characteristic  of  the  real  endowment  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  spoke  to  him  and  won  his  attention  and 
respect.  In  a  short  time  that  boy  was  a  scholar 
in  the  Sunday  school  here.  Not  long  afterward 
he  stood  at  the  altar  of  this  church,  to  take  the 
sacred  vows,  and  begin  the  life  of  God’s  man 
among  men.  The  old  preacher  stood  beside  him 
in  glowing  interest.  Through  the  months  since, 
that  boy  has  proven  true  to  every  vow  and  de¬ 
veloped  a  fine  life  for  Jesus  Christ.  To-day  it 
was  that  boy  who  came  here  bearing  this  little 
bouquet  in  his  own  hands,  prepared  by  his  own 
hands,  picked  by  his  own  hands  from  the  only 
flowers  he  owned,  the  ones  that  grow  wild  in  the 
open  fields.  This  bouquet  is  a  tribute  of  love  to 
the  man  who  brought  him  to  God.”  The  com¬ 
munity  will  never  be  made  to  feel  the  impress  of 


128 


THE  EXPECTED  CHUKCH 


the  church  upon  it  as  it  should  feel  it  until  each 
of  us  who  call  ourselves  Christians  shall  indeed 
be  possessed  of  the  magnetism  of  the  divine 
presence.  The  characteristic  mark  put  down 
here  in  our  text  out  of  the  long  ago  was  worded 
again  by  the  prophet  Isaiah,  and  must  remain 
the  same  always,  “Nations  that  knew  not  thee 
shall  run  unto  thee  because  of  the  Lord  thy  God 
and  for  the  Holy  One  of  Israel;  for  He  hath 
glorified  thee.” 

If  my  contention  be  true,  I  find  myself,  there¬ 
fore,  dragged  by  it  to  a  present  day  bar  of  judg¬ 
ment.  This  resultant  fact  must  be  the  evident 
credential  of  my  discipleship.  We  should 
be  hearing  continually  from  those  who  meet  us, 
“We  will  go  with  you,  for  we  have  heard  that 
God  is  with  you.”  I  must  accept  the  judgment 
of  my  contention  then.  If  this  be  true,  then 
there  remains  but  one  deduction  for  us  ever  to 
make  when  we  find  the  church  not  prospering  in 
us.  God  is  obligated  to  the  result ;  we  need  con¬ 
cern  ourselves  only  as  to  having  him  with  us. 
If  he  is  with  us,  the  result  we  can  trust  to  him. 
When  the  church  languishes  I  cannot  doubt 
where  the  trouble  lies.  When  we  have  God  we 
win.  There  can  be  no  exception.  He  is  our 
guaranteed  endowment.  I  would  say  all  this  in 
most  solicitous  interest  of  the  church’s  advance¬ 
ment.  I  would  press  it  deep  to  every  heart  in 
obligation.  Your  life !  Your  life !  It  was  Chris- 


THE  CHURCH’S  ATTRACTION  129 


tian  life  that  transformed  the  steps  of  timid  un¬ 
known  disciples  into  the  tread  of  conquering 
armies  going  out  everywhere,  even  pressing 
through  the  iron  gates  of  heathen  Rome  and 
demanding  attention  of  the  king  of  the  world. 
It  was  a  Christian  life  that  transformed  igno¬ 
rant  and  unlearned  fishermen  and  publicans  and 
associated  them  with  scholarly  men  transformed 
in  life,  to  dispute  to  conviction  on  the  classic 
hills  of  Athens.  It  was  Christian  life  that  moved 
fearlessly  out  on  a  commission  to  all  the  world 
when  the  bounds  of  such  a  commission  had  not 
yet  been  dreamed  of  in  men’s  minds,  and,  with¬ 
out  scrip,  or  purse,  or  prestige,  actually  an¬ 
nounced  their  campaign  to  win  the  world.  It  is 
to-day  the  most  vital  power  in  the  world,  and 
presents  before  the  problematic  situation  of 
mankind  the  only  hope  the  nations  have  as  they 
find  themselves  after  all  their  proud  advance¬ 
ment  tossed  in  a  fierce  tempest  of  sin,  and  swept 
by  an  awful  strife  of  men  governed  by  consum¬ 
ing  selfishness.  The  Christian  life,  where  God 
actually  is  disclosed  in  human  association,  is  the 
hope  of  the  world.  I  ask  you  to  assume  in  your 
own  place  the  attraction  of  a  life  endowed  of 
God.  Power  for  such  a  life  is  available  for  each 
of  us.  The  responsibility  of  failing  to  bring  it 
among  men  must  rest  upon  us.  When  a  man 
begins  to  walk  with  God  a  strange  change  comes 
over  him.  Mark  Guy  Pearse  has  a  passage  some- 


130 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


what  thus,  in  that  remarkable  little  book  of  his  on 
The  Christianity  of  Jesus  Christ.  I  have  not  the 
words,  but  the  contention.  The  Christian  man 
still  walks  the  familiar  path  he  knew  yesterday 
— the  flowers,  the  trees,  the  brooks,  the  sky,  the 
stars,  the  storms,  the  calms,  sun  and  rain;  his 
pathway  remains.  But  somehow  there  seems  to 
be  a  new  face  to  flower,  or  sky  or  storm.  The 
duties  that  called  him  still  call  him — his  shop, 
and  market,  and  field,  and  street  and  office;  his 
hammer,  and  trowel,  and  plow,  and  pen,  and 
book.  Familiar  things.  But  there  is  a  new  light 
in  his  soul  to-day,  and  he  smites  with  the 
strength  of  ten  because  his  heart  is  pure.  He 
bears  on  his  back  the  very  same  loads.  Tired! 
Heavy  old  word  that.  How  much  he  has  been 
borne  down,  and  he  finds  not  now  any  escape 
from  a  load.  He  finds  even  new  exhortation  to 
bear  more  burdens,  as  though  his  shoulders  had 
been  strengthened,  and  not  that  his  task  had 
been  lessened.  There  is  new  strength  in  his 
arm.  He  meets  the  same  old  faces.  Childhood's 
friends  are  not  lost;  men  and  women  of  familiar 
name;  great  men  bent  to  great  tasks;  ordinary 
men  at  monotonous  routine.  Children  in  gay, 
careless  laughter — the  same  faces  these.  But 
now  there  is  a  new  radiance  of  love  upon  them, 
for  he  has  a  greater  heart  in  his  breast.  He  is 
indeed  living  to-day  right  where  he  lived  yester¬ 
day,  but  this  is  Dr.  Pearse’s  argument :  “Yester- 


THE  CHURCH’S  ATTRACTION  131 


day  he  walked  alone;  and  to-day  he  walks  with 
God.”  That’s  the  genius  of  our  religion.  That’s 
the  evident  power  of  the  church.  God  in  us.  I 
know  how  audacious  it  sounds  for  such  an  one 
as  am  I  to  dare  utter  such  a  claim.  I  shame, 
God  knows,  before  this  little  life  of  mine,  to 
pronounce  such  a  belief.  Yet  my  heart  fails  me 
to  think  of  what  I  would  be  if  I  were  left  without 
him.  Even  the  great  ones  failed  without  him. 
What  could  I  do  then? 

I  was  reading  a  strange,  yet  most  discerning, 
comment  somewhere  on  the  impressive  life  of 
Charles  Darwin.  The  comment  was  made,  after 
many  incidents  were  given,  that  his  life  was,  in 
often  very  strange  notes  but  nevertheless  un¬ 
questioning  cries,  a  constant  appeal  for  a  defi¬ 
nite  faith.  The  writer  declared  that  the  great 
scholar  walked  carefully  along  doing  his  duty 
splendidly,  and  with  single-hearted  simplicity, 
but  just  barely  missed  the  way  all  the  time.  “The 
gospel  he  wanted  was  just  the  other  side  of  the 
wall,”  was  the  summarized  sentence  at  the  close 
of  the  interesting  comment.  I  am  wondering 
now  if  the  figure  of  the  great  scientist  is  not  a 
strong  picture  of  this  age  of  ours.  There  is  so 
very  much  in  our  day  which  argues  to  unsatis¬ 
faction.  So  much  of  our  strength  just  misses 
the  way.  So  many  of  our  great  movements  stop 
short  of  the  real  purpose  of  it  all.  There  cannot 
be  the  least  doubt  in  the  mind  of  any  carefully 


132 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


observing  man  to-day  that  the  most  difficult 
religions  endeavor  before  this  wonderful  cen¬ 
tury  of  ours,  that  is  so  proudly  enamored  of  its 
strength  and  its  science  and  its  culture  and  its 
riches,  is  to  devise  some  means  to  keep  genuine 
vitality  and  real  faith  in  the  essential  doctrines 
of  our  religion  in  the  hearts  of  those  who  have 
reduced  their  religious  life  to  a  mere  nominal 
adherence.  We  are  not  now  troubled  with  a 
bold  infidelity.  That  can  be  met,  when  once 
disclosed.  But,  w7hile  the  presence  of  unbelief 
may  not  be  bold,  it  is  not  hard  for  any  good  ob¬ 
server  to  discover  a  very  widespread  spirit  of 
doubt,  and  deadening  unconcern  towrard  the  fun¬ 
damentals  of  our  belief.  I  covet  the  complete 
religious  triumph  of  the  church,  I  covet  all  our 
people  aflame  with  God.  It  is  to  no  mere  cam¬ 
paign  of  sanitary  plumbing  and  good  ventila¬ 
tion.  All  of  that  w7e  will  do  to-day,  and  rightly 
so,  as  a  matter  of  public  safety.  The  social  clean¬ 
up  is  sheer  logic  of  our  ordinary  sense.  I  covet 
now  a  distinctly  religious  triumph.  Splendid 
old  Rutherford  knew  what  it  was  when  he  sang 
his  little  song, 

“If  one  soul  from  Anworth, 

Meet  me  at  God’s  right  hand. 

My  heaven  will  be  two  heavens, 

In  Emmanuel’s  Land.” 


There  is  but  one  business  w7orth  w7hile.  One  of 


THE  CHURCH’S  ATTRACTION  133 


our  judges,  just  from  the  thriving  dockets  of  his 
court,  where  men  were  forever  contending  with 
passion  over  matters  that  were  secondary, 
stopped  to  talk  with  me  one  evening  just  before  I 
was  to  speak  on  a  street-corner  where  I  had  been 
preaching  the  gospel  a  good  many  times.  He 
said,  “Why  don’t  you  preach  a  series  of  sermons 
on  ‘What  is  Worth  While?’  ”  We  all  know  what 
he  was  struggling  with.  The  court  where  men 
drive  so  hard,  and  buy  costly  counsel  in  strife 
over  things  the  possession  of  which  will  so  soon 
be  shaken  frdm  their  palsy-struck  hands  by 
death  that  knows  n*o  court,  arises  from  its  sit¬ 
ting  to  ask,  “What  is  Worth  While?”  There  is 
but  one  business  worth  while.  It  took  prece¬ 
dence  even  at  the  throne  of  heaven.  It  conscripted 
even  the  only  Son  of  God.  It  was  the  only  task 
that  could  conscript  heaven.  It  consumed 
Christ  with  its  great  passion.  There  is  nothing 
which  offers  such  dividends  to  life  as  does  this. 
Yet  is  there  nothing  which  requires  of  life  the 
absolute  emptying  of  itself  as  does  this.  It  must 
ever  remain  that  it  is  not  by  might,  nor  by  power, 
but  only  by  the  Spirit  of  God.  Then  men  shall 
follow  him  in  whom  God  may  be  found,  not  be¬ 
cause  of  the  man  but  because  of  his  Guest.  When 
Jesus  Christ  trod  the  earth  it  is  recorded  as 
being  said  one  day  by  some  Pharisees  who  had 
been  plotting  to  get  rid  of  him,  and  to  whom  his 
presence  was  a  constant  rebuke,  “Behold  how 


134 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


we  prevail  nothing;  the  world  has  gone  after 
him.”  The  God-filled  life  will  win.  The  church's 
only  attraction  has  ever  been,  is  to-day,  and  will 
ever  be,  God  in  its  life.  We  cannot  think  of  it 
as  anything  less,  or  as  anything  else,  and  it  is 
guaranteed  power  to  live  such  a  life  that  is 
offered  to  all  who  will  receive  him.  When  John 
Irvine  came  to  die  I  stood  beside  his  bed.  The 
group  of  his  loved  ones  had  watched  him  make 
ready  to  go  for  some  time.  He  had  lived  a  long 
life  of  service  wherein  he  himself  never  shone. 
He  had  kept  a  light  to  show  sailors  the  way. 
When  storms  blew  hard,  and  seas  leaped  in  fury, 
it  was  the  light  John  Irvine  kept  that  the  ships 
sailed  by.  For  all  a  long  life  that  faithful  man 
had  put  that  light  against  the  darkness.  Few 
knew  him.  A  multitude  followed  his  light.  As 
death  drew  near  and  darkness  came  down  upon 
him,  he  mustered  his  failing  strength  and  lifting 
his  tired  head  turned  his  face  to  the  window  and 
asked  “Is  the  light  burning?”  And  we  all  said, 
“Yes.”  And  he  lay  still  a  moment.  The  wind 
howled  across  the  chimney,  and  whipped  against 
the  casement.  Visions  of  high  waves,  and  look¬ 
out  in  mad  seas,  were  in  his  soul,  and  he  once 
more  summoned  all  the  strength  he  had,  and 
raising  his  faithful  head  asked  with  all  the  con¬ 
centrate  interest  of  a  whole  life’s  ministry  in  his 
earnestness,  “Is  the  light  burning?”  And  it  was 
pitch  dark,  but  for  the  light  which  he  so  faith- 


THE  CHURCH’S  ATTRACTION  135 


fully  kept.  The  gleam  of  that  ray  has  been  in 
my  way  down  the  years.  Not  John  Irvine,  but 
the  light  he  kept.  God  in  us.  “We  will  go  with 
you,  for  we  have  heard  that  God  is  with  you.” 


VIII 


THE  CHUKCH  AN  OPPORTUNITY 

“Feed  the  church  of  God,  which  he  hath  purchased  with 
his  own  blood.” — Acts  20.  28. 

The  Church  of  God  is  the  best  investment 
ever  offered  as  an  opportunity  for  life.  Our  day, 
eloquent  as  no  other  day  has  ever  been  with 
schemes  of  the  professional  promoter,  should  be 
in  a  mood  to  consider  the  church  as  a  safe  in¬ 
vestment.  It  is  time  the  church  was  presented 
to  men  not  as  mere  toleration  but  as  unbounded 
opportunity.  I  would  not  seem  to  make  its  ap¬ 
peal  thus  as  justified  merely  on  the  insurance 
side  of  our  values,  as  Mr.  Babson  so  very  well 
argues.  I  would,  rather,  make  it  the  outstand¬ 
ing  opportunity  before  men,  who  realize  that 
from  mere  financial  opportunity  they  have  al¬ 
ready  made  wise  selection  and  placed  their 
available  means  in  fertile  propositions  upon 
whose  dividends  they  are  placing  a  comfortable 
confidence  against  old  age  and  failing  health. 
After  all,  the  mere  investment  of  property,  no 
matter  how  well  it  is  done,  does  not  carry  com¬ 
plete  satisfaction.  We  want  the  opportunity  of 
life  that  offers  the  investment  of  ourselves  in 
things  that  lie  beyond  the  realm  of  our  money. 

136 


THE  CHURCH  AN  OPPORTUNITY  137 


It  may  be  a  bit  unusual  to  have  the  church  pre¬ 
sented  thus,  but  I  am  full  convinced  it  is  an 
essential  appeal  when  properly  put.  Religion 
has  always  had  to  suffer  at  the  hands  of  men 
who  would  exploit  it.  Men  have  sought  from  it 
that  which  they  could  get  out  of  it.  I  want  to 
stand  squarely  before  every  such  interpretation 
of  the  church,  and  present  it  to  your  attention 
not  as  a  reward,  but  as  an  opportunity. 

Nor  would  I  have  you  cut  the  measure  of  your 
relationship  to  the  church  by  so  small  a  pattern 
as  mere  duty.  A  dying  man  beside  whom  I  sat 
one  day,  and  with  whom  I  was  talking  about  the 
great  call  of  personal  faith  in  God,  said  to  me  in 
that  utterly  wide-of-the-mark  idea  very  com¬ 
monly  held  about  religion's  appeal,  “Oh,  yes,  I 
believe  all  men  ought  to  belong  to  the  church.” 
The  church  as  a  duty  is  an  unfair  measure  of  it, 
and  has  never  won  for  it  any  very  effectual 
allegiance.  There  are  those  who  give  money  to 
the  church  merely  because  they  think  they  ought 
to  do  so.  Many  a  business  man  in  some  little 
response  to  some  appeal  has  thus  performed  a 
feeble  “ought,”  for  the  church.  All  that  is  a 
fatal  avenue  for  loss  of  power.  A  man  never 
goes  very  far,  nor  very  nobly,  religiously,  as  an 
obligation,  and  what  little  going  he  does  do  thus 
is  tired  and  unhappy.  Enthusiasm  in  service 
never  found  birth  in  such  condition. 

I  propose  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  as  our 


138 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


best  investment,  and  make  bold  to  say  that  it 
offers  the  one  really  great  opportunity  for  the 
safe  placing  of  your  life,  which,  after  all,  is  the 
only  really  great  investment  any  of  us  ever  have 
to  make,  and  is  still  the  one  about  which  we 
figure  the  least.  Our  cities  are  full  of  business 
men  who  pride  themselves  in  their  keen  sense  of 
values,  and  think  in  wonderful  accuracy  along 
the  lines  of  dividends  upon  invested  capital,  and 
yet  they  are  not  giving  any  thought  to  the  seri¬ 
ous  fact  that  the  most  precious  possession  they 
have  is  not  bringing  them  a  single  per  cent  of 
interest.  Their  lives  are  not  invested.  What  a 
man  does  with  his  life  is  far  more  important 
than  what  he  does  with  his  money.  And  yet 
we  who  can  sense  six  per  cent  afar  off,  are  utterly 
indifferent  to  the  cessation  of  dividends  in  life 
investment. 

I  am  told  often  in  conversation,  and  in  the 
literature  critical  upon  our  day,  that  the  passion 
of  this  day  is  turned  toward  amusements.  It  is 
anything  but  complimentary  for  us  now  to  agree 
to  that,  at  such  a  time  when  the  world  is  still 
draining  the  dregs  of  the  bitter  sorrow  of  the 
most  awful  war  man  ever  staggered  through.  An 
incident  happened  in  a  camp  of  training  soldiers 
where  I  chanced  to  be  one  day  that  made  great 
impress  on  my  appreciation  of  what  plain  con¬ 
duct  could  mean  in  a  crisis.  I  had  gone  into  the 
camp  to  see  my  son,  who  was  soon  to  leave  for 


THE  CHURCH  AN  OPPORTUNITY  139 


France.  I  had  just  come  back  from  those  suf¬ 
fering  fields,  over  there,  and  the  pull  of  them 
was  on  me,  and  the  strange  atmosphere  which 
was  created,  in  an  artificial  effort  to  make  life 
gay  and  careless  around  the  soldiers,  seemed  to 
choke  my  sense  of  the  great  gripping  sorrow  that 
was  crushing  the  world’s  heart.  A  French  officer 
had  been  sent  to  drill  the  men.  Beyond  the 
drill  he  could  see  the  actual  war  he  well  knew. 
Some  one  in  the  town,  in  eager  interest  to  do 
something,  arranged  a  ball,  and  invited  the 
Frenchman.  He  sent  them  back  a  most  polite 
refusal  with  the  words,  “I  cannot  dance  here, 
while  my  brothers  die  there.”  The  far-flying 
application  of  that  reply  must  strike  keenly  at 
much  of  our  conduct.  Who  are  we  to-day,  to 
whose  ears  the  sobs  of  suffering  millions  still 
are  plain,  above  and  beyond  all  the  loud  huz- 
zahs  that  victory  could  proclaim;  we  to  whose 
knowledge  there  has  come  the  assurance  of 
many  millions  in  actual  starvation’s  need?  Who 
are  we,  in  so  tragic  a  day  as  is  this,  through 
whose  late  found  peace  runs  the  haunt  of  a  cer¬ 
tain  dull  liability  of  all  we  prize  in  civilization ; 
who  are  we  to  be  talking  now  about  amusements? 
There  is  so  very  much  in  this  world  now  that 
demands  all  the  real  strength  that  life  can  mean 
in  any  one  of  us,  that  it  is  a  very  small  measure 
for  us  to  offer  the  world,  this  matter  of  how  good 
a  time  we  can  have. 


140 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


When  we  step  up  out  of  this  hard  day  for  the 
final  judgment  of  God,  and  see  our  lives  meas¬ 
ured  as  to  what  we  have  done,  the  standards 
before  which  we  have  dared  judge  a  good  time 
will  look  so  cheap,  we  will  never  agree  to  them 
there.  We  must  measure  ourselves  beside  a 
world  where  genuine  woe  has  been  spilled  to  a 
very  flood  of  suffering;  a  world  where  actual 
hunger  stalks  abroad;  a  world  where  actual 
nakedness  shrinks  before  winter.  These  are  not 
days  to  tolerate  the  complaint  of  loss  of  ease. 
We  must  catch  the  real  balance  of  life  which  is 
found  by  making  life’s  best  offering  rather  than 
demanding  its  greedy  desires.  The  actual  pos¬ 
session  of  things  we  greatly  desire  may  utterly 
wreck  our  satisfaction.  Jesus  was  vividly 
showing  this  in  his  wonderful  story  of  the  prodi¬ 
gal  son,  by  the  wide  differences  in  the  young 
man  when  he  first  in  selfishness  cried  out  to  his 
father,  “Give  me  my  portion” ;  and  again,  when 
at  the  far  end  of  his  folly,  in  the  hog-lot  of  his 
losses,  he  resolved,  “I  will  arise  and  go  to  my 
father  and  say,  Make  me  as  one  of  thy  hired 
servants.”  Give  me,  and  make  me,  were  the  two 
extremes.  A  man  never  writes  a  very  great  pro¬ 
gram  for  himself  around  the  general  theme  of 
“give  me.”  He  starts  no  high  career  with  such 
a  slogan.  He  sets  no  pace  for  heroism  there. 
Yet  I  am  sure  the  word  strikes  close  to  the  dis¬ 
tinguishing  motive  of  much  life  to-day.  Maybe 


THE  CHURCH  AN  OPPORTUNITY  141 


it  has  required  a  war  that  would  shake  the  very 
foundations  of  the  world  to  reset  the  stones  of 
society,  and  drive  out  selfishness  from  our  souls. 
“Give  me/’  was  running  rife  in  life.  So  complete 
was  its  grip  on  some  that  while  heroic  darings 
and  unselfishness  came  from  many,  there  were 
yet  those  who  saw  then  an  opportunity  to  coin 
even  that  to  their  own  coffers,  and  so  eagerly 
did  they  reach  for  their  own  that  they  picked  up 
some  things  that  had  blood  on  them.  But  there 
were  those — and  many,  thank  God — who  learned 
a  nobler  thing.  They  cast  self-interest  aside,  and 
with  faces  bathed  in  earnest  tears,  and  with 
eyes  fixed  on  nobler  ministry,  heroically  cried  to 
God:  “Make  me!  Make  me,  Lord.” 

I  have  dared  thus  to  touch  those  suffering 
days,  the  like  of  which  we  pray  God  the  world 
shall  never  have  to  know  again,  just  to  say  that 
the  Christian  way  of  living  is  not  to  be  minis¬ 
tered  unto,  but  to  minister.  The  entrustment  of 
life  must  be  made  to  count  for  good.  That  is 
our  best  investment.  You  can  get  your  money 
placed  where  it  will  bring  you  a  good  return. 
That  may  be  a  very  good  thing  to  do,  though  I 
doubt  the  full  satisfaction  of  merely  drawing 
your  dividends  as  credentials  of  your  success. 
Who  made  your  dividends?  What  we  want 
now  is  just  as  honest  and  as  passionate  an  en¬ 
deavor  to  find  the  safe  investment  of  life  as  we 
do  of  money.  I  was  sitting  in  a  street-car  beside 


142 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


a  workman  going  home  from  the  factory  one 
day,  and  we  were  talking  about  life  as  it  hap¬ 
pened  to  look  just  then,  and  he  said  as  somewhat 
of  a  summary  of  his  questionings:  “We  work  all 
day  to  make  money,  and  half  the  night  to  spend 
it ;  what  we  need  is  some  one  to  tell  us  what  it  is 
all  about,”  The  church  asks  attention  here. 

When  we  call  for  life  investment  we  cannot 
bring  small  or  unworthy  ideals.  You  might 
afford  to  risk  some  of  your  money  in  small  ven¬ 
tures.  It  is  not  an  irrecoverable  matter  to  lose 
your  money.  I  knew  an  old  man  once  classed  as 
wealthy.  He  made  some  poor  investments,  and 
at  seventy  years  of  age  was  a  poor  man  again. 
He  swung  his  old  pack-sack  over  his  strong 
shoulder,  and  bravely  went  out  into  the  North 
Woods,  and  found  an  iron  mine  and  died  a  mil¬ 
lionaire.  I  sat  all  night  long  beside  one  of  my 
dearest  friends  whose  property  had  all  been 
swept  away  as  by  a  flood  to  leave  him  a  poor 
man.  I  watched  him  come  back  once  more  to  a 
place  of  power  in  business.  It  is  not  an  irrecov¬ 
erable  calamity  for  a  man  to  lose  his  money.  But 
you  cannot  afford  to  lose  your  life.  I  would 
offer  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  as  the  greatest 
opportunity  opened  in  this  world  for  your  life. 
I  have  been  reading  that  gripping  story  of  Silas 
Marner,  the  miser.  How  he  came  home  at  late 
hours  from  work  which  he  loved  only  because 
he  got  money  for  it.  The  door  of  his  lone  abode 


THE  CHURCH  AN  OPPORTUNITY  143 


was  carefully  sliut  and  locked.  The  curtains 
were  all  drawn  close.  Every  corner  was  searched 
to  make  sure  of  his  loneness.  Then  from  the 
secret  place  in  the  floor  he  lifted  his  golden  treas¬ 
ure.  He  counted  and  recounted  it.  He  washed 
his  grasping  hands  in  it.  He  fell  asleep  with  his 
tired  face  buried  in  it.  Gold!  Gold!  Gold! 
He  awakened  with  a  startle,  and  clutched  it  all 
up,  making  sure  he  has  not  lost  any,  and  hid  it 
away  in  the  secret  place  again.  One  night  after 
he  had  made  sure  he  was  alone,  he  lifted  the 
secret  tile  to  behold  gaunt  emptiness  staring  at 
him.  His  gold  was  all  gone.  You  know  the  story 
of  his  hunt.  But  Marner  lost  his  gold  to  find 
a  better  life.  I  pity  the  man,  Marner  or  any 
other  man,  who  one  hard  day,  after  the  world 
has  all  run  out,  and  he  has  come  in  and  pulled 
down  the  curtains  and  chinked  the  doors  to  for¬ 
bid  any  other  eye,  goes  to  look  before  God  for  his 
life  and  finds  he  has  absolutely  lost  it.  Placed 
it  wrong,  wasted  it  in  riotous  living,  thrown  it 
away  in  mere  aimlessness.  God  pity  the  man 
who  invests  life  wrong.  I  propose  the  church 
as  your  best  investment.  Those  who  put  life 
there  must  feel  they  have  contact  with  all  that  is 
best.  The  church  will  take  your  life  everywhere 
in  ministry.  There  is  not  a  need  in  this  needy 
world  it  will  not  lead  you  up  to.  There  is  not 
a  need  it  would  avoid.  It  winds  no  skirts  of 
avoidance  about  it  in  defense.  It  does  not  pass 


144 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


by  on  the  other  side  any  distress  that  lies  across 
this  world.  Every  alley  of  despair  is  on  its  call¬ 
ing  list.  Not  a  broken  stair  or  a  bare  room  it  has 
not  interest  in.  Life  cannot  run  so  far  in  sin  or 
wretchedness  as  to  escape  its  solicitation.  The 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  was  organized  and  set  to 
the  task  of  saving  this  world,  by  Him  who  saw 
what  the  world  was  to  be  saved  from.  I  take  my 
chief  joy  in  urging  this  great  life  investment 
upon  men  and  women. 

I  used  to  have  a  good  friend,  a  Christian  Jew 
in  Odessa  in  Russia,  who  told  me  the  wonderful 
story  of  a  poor  little  Russian  Jewess,  who  was 
left  for  dead  on  the  streets  of  Odessa,,  a  supposed 
victim  of  a  mob  that  swept  through  troubled 
streets  and  killed  a  multitude.  The  girl  awoke 
to  consciousness  amid  the  dead  of  her  own  fam¬ 
ily,  who  lay  all  about  her  there,  and  whose 
broken  forms  she  could  see  in  the  glare  of  the 
burning  houses  along  the  street.  She  dragged 
her  badly  beaten  body  to  the  steps  of  a  near-by 
house,  and  fell  fainting  there,  only  to  be  recov¬ 
ered  to  consciousness  later  in  some  quiet  place, 
where  she  was  hovered  over  by  some  whose  kind¬ 
ness  was  endeavoring  to  lure  life  back  again. 
Her  body  was  restored  to  health.  She  made  her 
escape  from  her  troubled  home,  and  in  that 
strange  ability  to  journey,  which  has  written 
romance  across  many  a  poor  immigrant’s 
career,  came  to  America.  She  made  her  wav. 

/  t/ 


l 


THE  CHURCH  AN  OPPORTUNITY  145 


A  great  passion  was  compelling  her  soul. 
She  worked  out  an  education.  On  the  day 
of  her  graduation  she  had  the  unusual  honors 
of  her  class  in  one  of  America’s  large  col¬ 
leges.  She  then  turned  her  face  once  more 
to  the  land  of  her  sorrows,  which  was  to 
be  the  land  now  of  her  service.  As  she  left 
America  she  set  ringing  in  the  ears  of  all  who 
can  ever  come  to  know  the  life  of  Jessie  Smith 
her  fine  declaration  of  the  investment  of  her  life 
for  the  good  of  the  world.  When  I  think 
through  such  an  opportunity  as  that  bruised, 
ignorant,  unknown,  but  barely  living  girl,  drag¬ 
ging  her  bleeding  body  off  the  street,  could  make 
for  divine  direction,  I  wonder  what  God  could 
do  with  the  choice  youth  of  this  richly  oppor¬ 
tune  day,  if  the  same  passion  for  service  should 
be  granted  right  of  way  in  their  lives. 

I  was  interested  in  a  story  I  heard  a  preacher 
tell  one  day  in  a  meeting  of  preachers  in  spiritual 
council  over  some  needed  church  work  they  were 
planning.  The  discussion  had  turned  to  the 
need  of  passionate  appreciation  of  our  task,  and 
a  minister  arose  and  told  this  incident  that  had 
happened  in  a  church  he  knew  in  his  boyhood. 
A  young  man  desired  to  become  a  missionary 
and  had  offered  his  life  as  such  to  the  church. 
The  father  would  not  agree.  They  had  a  serious 
argument  in  the  home,  and  finally  agreed  to 
leave  it  to  the  session  of  their  church.  The  ses- 


146 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


sion  was  called  for  that  special  consideration. 
Father  and  son  were  there.  When  the  meeting 
was  called  to  order,  the  pastor  requested  a  char¬ 
acteristic  old  farmer  of  plain,  straight  ways,  but 
of  unswerving  loyalty  to  divine  leadership,  to 
lead  in  prayer.  The  prayer  was  short  and  direct. 
He  prayed:  “O  God,  thou  knowest  thy  servant 
Mills,  who  dedicated  to  thee  in  baptism  his  son, 
to  the  Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost.  Now  thou 
desirest  the  young  man  for  a  missionary,  and 
thy  servant  Mills  is  mad.  Amen.”  Mills  imme¬ 
diately  got  to  his  feet  and  said,  “Mr.  President, 
this  session  was  called  to  settle  a  dispute  be¬ 
tween  my  son  and  I.  There  is  no  dispute  be¬ 
tween  us  any  more  since  that  prayer.  I  move 
we  adjourn.”  The  meeting  adjourned  and  the 
life  of  another  faithful  missionary  had  begun. 
The  Church  of  Christ  is  still  the  greatest  oppor¬ 
tunity  for  life  investment  known  among  men. 

God  has  intrusted  to  us  the  most  difficult  day 
to  justify  living  through  that  has  ever  been  in¬ 
trusted  to  any  generation.  It  is  far  more  diffi¬ 
cult  now  to  vindicate  our  right  to  live  and  in¬ 
herit  the  blood-bought  responsibilities  of  this 
hour  than  it  was  even  to  go  out  and  die  to  bring 
this  hour  in,  for  we  must  now  justify  our  inheri¬ 
tance.  You  can,  if  you  choose,  go  on  and  out  of 
this  searching  day,  and  leave  absolutely  nothing 
behind  you  of  influence.  You  can  die  a  death 
at  some  not-far  distant  day,  and  be  carted  off 


THE  CHURCH  AN  OPPORTUNITY  147 


somewhere  to  a  quiet  field  and  buried,  and 
marked  with  a  little  or  a  big  stone — little  mat¬ 
ters  it — that  will  be  your  chief,  aye,  your  only 
marker.  Or  you  can  here  and  now  make  ready 
the  contribution  of  your  life  that  will  register 
you  in  service.  I  had  rather  leave  the  contribu¬ 
tion  of  my  dedicated  life  in  some  vital  institu¬ 
tion  that  would  come  on  down  the  years  and  con¬ 
centrate  forever  about  it  the  diviner  ideals  of 
city  and  country  place ;  an  institution  that  would 
maintain  open  doors  to  an  altar  w  here  men  and 
women  and  children  could  kneel  in  holy  com¬ 
munion  and  consecration;  an  institution  that 
would  furnish  an  ever-available  calm  and  sure 
retreat  for  souls  pursued  by  sin;  that  would 
make  permanent  a  pulpit  where  the  message  of 
God’s  love  should  be  proclaimed  down  the  years ; 
that  would  unstop  the  sacred  melodies  of  great 
hymns  to  sing  to  drooping  souls  in  discourage¬ 
ment  the  eternal  optimism  of  Christian  hope;  I 
would  point  to  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
declare  that  I  had  rather  have  my  whole  life  in¬ 
vested  in  its  great  and  ever-increasing  service, 

than  anv  or  all  other  investments  this  wrorld 
«/ 

has  yet  offered.  I  have  little  but  this  all  too 
little  life  of  mine  to  invest,  but  with  the  pro¬ 
found  prayer  that  it  may  be  purged  “even  so  as 
by  fire,”  if  necessary,  that  it  be  more  worthy  of 
investment  in  so  sacred  an  opportunity,  I  would 
bring  it  to  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  offer 


148 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


it  all.  We  stand  upon  sacred  ground  in  Chris¬ 
tianity  to-day.  Our  place  was  not  won  without 
sacrifice.  Noblest  men  and  women  have  wrought 
their  very  life-blood  into  the  foundations.  Surely 
we  will  not  dare  pass  on  to  our  successors  any 
less  evidence  of  real  devotion  to  the  cause. 
Surely,  we  will  not  dare  clasp  into  the  plastic 
condition  of  this  tried  age  the  fingerprints  of 
mere  selfishness.  These  are  disturbed  days.  Just 
what  such  disturbance  shall  ultimately  mean  in 
vital  reconstruction  of  human  society  we  may  not 
know.  But  we  are  sure  there  stands  before  every 
earnest  soul  with  a  genuine  offering  to  bring  an 
effectual  and  an  open  door.  Failure  is  always  a 
calamity,  but  failure  of  those  who  have  the  op¬ 
portunity  of  a  crisis  is  doubly  tragic.  The  day  is 
being  ministered  to  by  many  good  things,  which 
are  just  short  of  the  best,  and  that  is  the  dull 
failure  of  much  of  our  day.  I  am  proposing  the 
church  as  our  supreme  investment  for  life  here, 
because  it  immediately  challenges  the  world  in 
you  with  the  claims  of  God.  How  the  church 
has  declared  its  priceless  dividends  in  life !  What 
flowers  of  fragrance  have  sprung  from  it !  What 
thoughts  have  been  generated  by  it !  What 
memories  cluster  about  it!  What  aspirations 
kindle,  what  hopes  glow,  what  loves  abide,  what 
fellowships  comfort,  what  inspirations  gird, 
what  songs  awaken,  all  as  perpetual  dividends 
from  the  Church  of  God!  Come  up,  men  and 


THE  CHURCH  AN  OPPORTUNITY  149 


women,  come  up  to  the  house  of  the  Lord.  Some 
of  you,  if  you  would  but  turn  your  outstanding 
success  to  the  church  now,  could  most  materially 
assist  in  guiding  this  transitional  period  of  his¬ 
tory  around  to  the  right.  I  covet  you  for  the 
church.  It  needs  you  now.  When  I  turn  my 
eyes  back  to  read  the  trying  story  of  much  the 
church  has  had  to  pass  through,  I  do  profoundly 
thank  God  for  the  faithful  souls  who  have  never 
failed.  I  appeal  to  you  to-day  that  you  shall 
help  make  possible  a  to-morrow  that  will  look 
back  as  proudly  upon  you.  Jesus  Christ  stands 
close  to  the  crisis  of  this  hour,  and  with  divine 
appreciation  of  what  it  means  to  the  whole  his¬ 
tory  of  the  world  when  it  shall  at  last  be  written, 
earnestly  invites  you  to  invest  your  whole  life 
here.  And  in  his  great  name  in  the  daring  cause 
to  which  he  so  perfectly  gave  himself,  I  urge 
now  your  acceptance. 

“Passionately  fierce,  the  voice  of  God  is  pleading, 

Pleading  with  men  to  arm  them  for  the  fight. 

See  how  those  hands,  majestically  bleeding, 

Call  us  to  rout  the  armies  of  the  night; 

Not  to  the  w7ork  of  sordid,  selfish  saving 

Of  our  own  souls,  to  dwell  with  him  on  high, 

But  to  the  soldier’s  splendid  selfless  braving, 

Eager  to  fight  for  righteousness,  and  to  die. 

Bread  of  thy  Body,  give  me  for  my  fighting; 

Give  me  to  drink  thy  sacred  blood  for  wine; 

While  there  are  wrongs  that  need  me  for  the  righting, 
While  there  is  warfare,  splendid  and  divine.” 


IX 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  TO-DAY 

“No  man  putteth  a  piece  of  new  garment  upon  an  old; 
if  otherwise,  then  both  the  new  maketh  a  rent,  and  the 
piece  that  was  taken  out  of  the  new  agreeth  not  with  the 
old.” — Luke  5.  36. 

The  Jews  were  sticklers  for  the  old  forms. 
There  was  a  genuine  sanctity  to  them  in  the  way 
in  which  their  fathers  had  done  things.  That 
which  had  come  out  of  a  long  past  carried  the 
flavor  of  an  acceptability  which  needed  no  apol¬ 
ogy  nor  was  compelled  to  appeal  to  an  argument. 
The  dignity  of  mere  age  was  a  genuine  dignity. 
There  is  a  sense  in  which  the  fight  of  progress 
has  always  been  set  against  the  worship  of  the 
past.  Every  improvement  has  had  to  carry  the 
handicap  of  prejudice  for  the  old,  in  its  appeal 
for  ascendency.  Christianity  met  this  fact  in  its 
most  outstanding  embodiment  when  it  first  asked 
for  world  attention.  In  every  least  departure 
from  the  old  forms  the  Jews  made  bold  to  point 
out  the  danger  of  the  new  religious  organiza¬ 
tion.  They  saw  that  the  disciples  of  Jesus  had 
ceased  to  conform  to  all  the  rites  and  cere¬ 
monies  they  had  received  across  sacred  centuries, 
and  at  once  went  to  Jesus  with  keen  inquiry  as 

150 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  TO-DAY  151 


to  the  reason.  The  Master  received  them,  and 
answered  them  with  two  very  keen  and  signifi¬ 
cant  parables,  that  carried  the  argument.  He 
well  knew  which  would  be  treasured  down  long 
centuries  yet  to  be,  as  the  ever-changing  forms 
of  a  continuous  and  growing  truth  should  find 
the  attendant  difficulties  of  an  advancing  civili¬ 
zation,  unable  to  be  met  by  the  methods  of  a 
lesser  yesterday.  The  religion  that  is  to  reach 
this  advancing  world  of  ours  must  not  be  sta¬ 
tionary  in  its  forms  and  expressions.  Jesus  an¬ 
swered  these  inquiring  Jews  quickly  with  two 
statements  framed  in  the  form  of  stories,  saying, 
“We  don’t  use  new  cloth  to  patch  an  old  garment, 
nor  do  we  put  new  wine  in  old  bottles.”  Both 
parables  carried  in  their  real  meaning  far  more 
than  they  merely  said,  and  Jesus  was  content  to 
set  them  down  the  centuries  to  interpret  anew 
to  every  age  the  same  truth  which  has  always 
seemed  a  difficult  truth  through  which  to  see  the 
application  of  religion.  He  meant  to  say  to 
those  inquiring  Jews  then  that  the  old  garment 
of  Judaism  was  worn  past  mending,  and  must 
therefore  be  replaced;  and  the  old  bottles  of 
Judaism  were  empty,  and  being  so,  carried  no 
promise  in  such  emptiness  to  a  thirsty  world, 
for  old  bottles  (wine  skins)  could  not  be  filled 
again,  being  exhausted  in  their  strength.  Chris¬ 
tianity  was  a  new  principle  for  life,  and  needed 
a  new  form  for  men  to  behold.  Jesus  was  mak- 


152 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


ing  clear,  with  these  homely  figures,  the  fact  that 
religion  to  continue  effective  must  be  adapted  to 
the  day  in  which  it  is  to  work. 

Conditions  are  ever  new,  and  the  religion  that 
saves  man  must  fit  mankind.  I  stopped  recently 
to  look  in  wondering  interest  at  the  first  loco¬ 
motive  and  rail  carriages  ever  used  in  our  coun¬ 
try.  They  had  been  hoisted  upon  a  platform, 
under  the  high  hung  roof  of  a  monster  terminal 
of  a  great  railroad  of  to-day.  We  who  had  just 
journeyed  hundreds  of  miles  in  all  the  comforts 
and  speed  of  the  modern  railroad,  could  scarce 
believe  that  those  crude  toy-looking  things  were 
the  railroad  equipment  of  yesterday.  But  the 
great  trains  we  know  to-day  are  the  eloquent 
declaration  of  the  progressive  principle  of  an 
ever-changing  adaptation  of  steam  transporta¬ 
tion.  The  church  of  the  twentieth  century  can¬ 
not  do  its  work  in  the  garb  of  the  seventeenth 
century,  nor  of  any  other  century.  If  civiliza¬ 
tion  and  the  life  of  the  people  shall  advance  into 
ever-new  and  changing  conditions,  the  Church 
of  Jesus  Christ,  which  is  set  for  the  salvation  of 
those  men  and  women,  cannot  remain  in  the 
ancient  forms  and  meet  its  responsibility. 

I  have  heard  folks  who  imagined  they  had 
discovered  a  great  spiritual  decline  because  of  a 
change  of  outward  methods  offer  severe  criticism 
because  the  old  camp  meeting  has  passed  away. 
It  was  the  ideal  ministry  of  real  spiritual  en- 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  TO-DAY  153 


deavor.  The  camp  meeting  was  effective  because 
it  was  the  only  way  a  protracted  meeting  could 
then  be  conducted.  Settlements  were  scattered. 
Transportation  was  poor.  There  is  no  piety  in  a 
tent.  There  is  no  assurance  of  religious  en¬ 
vironment  when  we  are  seated  on  rough  boards 
under  canvas  coverings.  Folks  to-day  who  seek 
to  revive  again  the  fervor  and  the  victories  of 
the  camp  meeting  find  the  religious  purpose  is 
violated  because  the  whole  thing  is  done  in  the 
spirit  of  an  outing  and  a  picnic.  All  this  does 
not  mean  that  we  cannot  have  a  changed  and 
better  form  of  meeting  more  adapted  to  our  day. 
We  want  a  service  of  religion  that  will  fit  the 
life  of  to-day.  The  religion  of  Jesus  Christ  will 
never  be  outrun  by  any  generation.  It  has  been 
designed  for  the  salvation  of  humanity,  just  as 
humanity  is  or  ever  shall  be.  Christianity  was 
not  designed  to  fit  a  human  problem  after  it  had 
been  worked  into  a  certain  degree  of  worthiness 
and  readiness.  God  matched  his  plan  against 
humanity,  and  no  changing  civilizations  or  cus¬ 
toms  that  man  shall  ever  devise  or  evolve  will 
place  an  uncrossable  barrier  between  the  gospel 
and  its  task.  There  is  a  divine  right,  and  a 
divine  intent  too,  in  the  adaptation  of  Christian¬ 
ity  to  whatever  any  age  shall  be  able  to  present. 
That  means  in  no  manner  that  the  genuine  vital¬ 
ity  of  our  religion  shall  be  changed. 

There  is  a  great  difference  between  adaptation 


154 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


for  effectiveness  and  surrender  of  principle. 
Because  we  shall  discover  a  more  perfectly  de¬ 
vised  administration  of  the  gospel  from  time  to 
time  to  the  real  problem  of  human  life  is  no 
ground  for  accusation  that  the  gospel  has  been 
changed.  When  I  was  a  boy  the  taking  of  qui¬ 
nine  was  a  common  home  experience,  and  to 
more  effectually  accomplish  the  dose,  my  some¬ 
what  inventive  mother  devised  the  splendid  plan 
of  putting  the  quinine  in  a  spoonful  of  sorghum. 
It  never  helped  the  sorghum  any,  but  it  surely 
did  make  the  quinine  more  easily  applied.  Since 
that  we  have  learned  how  to  encase  the  same 
essential  in  capsules  or  chocolate  coated  tablets. 
The  quinine  is  not  changed,  but  has  certainly 
been  more  effectually  adapted  to  its  ministry. 
The  great  high  standards  of  truth  and  holiness 
which  characterize  Christianity  cannot  change. 
They  must  remain  forever.  They  deal  with  the 
eternal  fundamentals.  They  must  remain  for 
kings  or  paupers,  for  ancients  or  moderns,  for 
wise  or  ignorant.  But  how  to  apply  them  to  the 
particular  type  of  every  age  is  the  ever-new 
problem  in  application  of  the  church.  The  Jew 
placed  confidence  in  form.  The  way  a  thing 
religious  was  done,  he  counted  of  prime  impor¬ 
tance.  The  same  judgment  has  caused  much 
difficulty  in  administration  of  church  endeavor 
ever  since.  Whoso  would  change  the  form  of 
our  religion  is  an  enemy  of  the  church.  We  have 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  TO-DAY  155 


suffered  much  shallow  criticism  springing  from 
that  thin  soil. 

“Build  thee  more  stately  mansions,  O  my  soul. 

As  the  swift  seasons  roll 
Leave  thy  low-vaulted  past; 

Let  each  new  temple,  nobler  than  the  last, 

Shut  thee  from  heaven  with  a  dome  more  vast. 

Till  thou  at  length  art  free. 

Leaving  thine  outgrown  shell, 

By  life’s  unresting  sea.” 

The  poet  has  caught  the  measure  of  life  there. 
The  only  unchanging,  set  thing  we  know  is  death. 
Life  must  forever  come  on  into  its  new-made 
temple  to  discover  above  it  a  vaster  dome  than 
yesterday  could  know.  “What  are  we  here  for 
but  to  grow?” 

There  was  a  time,  and  not  far  gone  is  it  yet, 
when  a  man’s  life  was  horizoned  in  a  little 
neighborhood.  That  neighborhood  was  cramped 
into  the  short  range  of  slow  horses  and  buggies. 
The  church  could  not  write  a  far-flung  program. 
But  conditions  changed,  and  the  neighborhood 
horizon  was  pushed  back  till  it  horizoned  a 
state,  then  a  nation,  and  to-day  no  man  is 
abreast  his  time  who  fails  to  catch  step  every 
morning  with  the  ways  and  needs  and  plans  of 
a  world.  The  church  form  and  work  must  not 
falter.  In  fact,  it  must  lead.  Mankind  is  not 
supposed  to  go  exploring  for  a  place  up  to  which 
it  will  be  safe  to  bring  the  church.  Christianity 


156 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


must  stand  forever  before  our  race  with  un¬ 
erring  finger  pointing  out  and  saying,  “This  is 
the  way;  walk  ye  in  it.”  The  little  church  at 
Pinnybog  must  have  news  of  China,  and  that 
Michigan  bog  is  not  the  bog  it  ought  to  be  un¬ 
less  the  pulse  of  China’s  pressing  need  be  felt  by 
its  people.  Who  ever  made  Pinnybog  to  be  a 
refuge,  to  which  to  flee  from  the  world  need? 
The  question  they,  with  us  all,  should  be  ask¬ 
ing  is,  How  near  do  we  now  come  to  being  the 
church  we  should  be?  In  seeking  answer  to  that 
question  I  shall  make  two  observations. 

First.  The  adapted  church  will  be  evident  by 
its  fruits  in  the  life  about  it.  This  is  the  most 
practically  tested  day  the  world  has  ever  known. 
Some  of  the  most  skillful  men  in  the  great  fac¬ 
tories  are  paid  high  wages  just  to  devise  severe 
testing  trials,  in  order  to  discover  every  con¬ 
cealed  flaw  that  may  have  passed  the  less  care¬ 
ful  eye  of  the  ordinary  workman.  I  saw  an 
automobile,  driven  by  one  of  the  officials  of  a 
large  automobile  factory,  which  had  been  made 
entirely  from  rejected  parts.  It  was  made  and 
used  as  a  convincing  sample  of  how  rigid  the 
tests  for  high  quality  were  in  that  factory.  Great 
business  advances  thus.  If  it  becomes  lax  in  the 
test,  the  cars  come  back  to  the  factorv  with  dis- 
pleased  customers  to  announce  them.  The  fac¬ 
tory  knows  it  is  much  easier  to  find  a  faulty 
gear  while  it  is  passing  from  the  ovens  to  its 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  TO-DAY 


157 


hardening,  than  to  have  the  whole  disabled  car 
sent  back  for  repair. 

Every  idea  submitted  to  the  world  must  meet 
that  same  fact.  Our  religion  is  tested  by  the 
life  it  produces.  Thoughtful  and  far-seeing  men 
in  our  country  and  world  to-day  believe,  and  are 
speaking  their  belief  boldly,  that  we  need  a  gen¬ 
uine  revival  of  simple  moral  imperative  more 
than  we  need  anything  else.  Men  who  are  sound¬ 
ing  deep  into  the  industrial  and  business  situa¬ 
tion  are  not  uncertain  in  their  testimony  to  this 
point.  The  absorbing  struggle  among  us  to-day 
for  material  prosperity  has  crowded  the  Ten 
Commandments  to  the  wall.  John  Ruskin,  who 
wrote  in  sarcasm  to  his  day,  dared  to  rewrite  the 
Commandments,  and  they  can  be  read  with  even 
more  meaning  by  this  day  than  by  his.  “Thou 
shalt  have  gods  of  ease  and  comfort  before  Me. 
Thou  shalt  worship  thine  own  imaginations  as 
to  houses  and  goods  and  business,  and  shalt  bow 
down  and  serve  them.  Thou  shall  remember  the 
Sabbath  Day,  to  make  sure  that  all  its  hours  are 
given  to  sloth  and  lounging  and  stuffing  the  body 
with  rich  foods,  leaving  the  children  of  sorrow 
and  ignorance  to  perish  in  their  sodden  misfor¬ 
tune.  Thou  shalt  kill  and  slay  men,  by  doing  as 
little  as  possible  thyself  and  squeezing  as  much 
as  possible  out  of  others.  Thou  shalt  look  upon 
loveliness  in  womanhood  to  soil  it  with  impurity. 
Thou  shalt  steal  daily,  the  employer  from  the 


158 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


servant,  and  the  servant  from  his  employer,  and 
the  devil  take  the  hindmost.  Thou  shaft  get 
thy  livelihood  by  weaving  a  great  web  of  false¬ 
hoods  and  sheathing  thyself  in  lies.  Thou  shalt 
covet  thy  neighbor’s  house  to  possess  it  for  thy¬ 
self!  thou  shalt  covet  his  office,  his  farm,  his 
goods,  his  fame,  and  everything  he  has.  And 
to  crown  all  these  practical  business  laws,  the 
Devil  has  added  a  new  commandment,  Thou 
shalt  hate  thy  brother  as  thou  hatest  thyself.” 
Such  was  Ruskin’s  bitter  sarcasm  at  his  day, 
but  he  was  proclaiming  it  because  he  declared 
“there  was  restlessness  in  the  heart ;  unhappiness 
in  the  home ;  hatred  in  the  task ;  anarchy  in  the 
street ;  all  of  which  things  lead  to  chaos,  destruc¬ 
tion  and  death.” 

Such  things  most  truly  stand  pleading  before 
this  day  of  ours  for  appreciation  again.  Did  we 
not  know  these  words  were  from  Ruskin,  we 
would  think  they  Were  from  the  very  last  page 
of  an  appeal  for  this  day.  Just  recently  the 
great  Premier  of  Britain  called  a  council  of 
ministers  to  dine  with  him  in  Downing  Street. 
After  grace  had  been  said  Mr.  Lloyd  George 
arose  to  address  the  gathered  guests  with  the 
proposition  which  had  prompted  his  calling  them 
together.  He  declared,  as  a  statesman  charged 
with  the  most  difficult  task  any  premier  of 
Britain  has  ever  had  to  face,  that  it  was  neces¬ 
sary  for  the  churches  to  stimulate  a  spiritual 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  TO-DAY  159 


revival  if  the  material  conditions  of  the  nation 
were  to  be  improved.  After  a  most  brilliant 
tracing  of  the  conspiring  causes  of  the  failures 
of  past  nations,  he  turned  to  his  main  thesis, 
which  was  that  England  needed  a  revival  of 
religion  more  than  anything  else.  Many  years 
ago  Plato  pointed  out  the  very  same  fact  before 
the  tottering  state.  The  church  must  be  adapted 
to  the  times.  There  was  a  day  when  religion 
was  supposed  to  function  when  a  priest  per¬ 
formed  services  before  the  people.  The  priestly 
service  was  rendered  not  by,  but  for  the  people ; 
not  in  any  manner  to  them,  but  in  their  behalf. 
Religious  service  in  the  terms  of  the  priesthood 
was  an  official  function.  That  conception  of  re¬ 
ligion  has  passed  away.  The  religion  of  to-day 
is  a  religion  of  life,  the  embodiment  of  all  the 
principles  of  the  human  soul. 

The  second  consideration  I  wish  now  to  ob¬ 
serve  is  that  the  adapted  church  must  be  mission¬ 
ary.  I  discovered  a  cult  recently  in  a  little  coun¬ 
try  town  which  presented  a  new  phase  of  reli¬ 
gious  claim,  so  far  as  I  know.  Its  devotees  claimed 
to  be  super-religious,  and  proved  it  by  keeping 
all  they  had.  They  don’t  believe  in  reading  the 
Bible.  They  don’t  believe  anyone  on  earth  will 
fail  of  heaven.  They  don’t  believe  in  churches. 
They  don’t  believe  in  doing  anything.  They  are 
pure  Don’t  Believers.  You  would  think,  if  the 
frequent  objections  we  hear  to  the  strenuous 


160 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


appeals  of  the  burdened  church  of  to-day  were 
correct,  that  a  crowd  of  joiners  would  be  seeking 
that  cult.  But  it  is  not  so.  Folks  don’t  join  the 
church  that  has  no  program.  The  church  that 
is  vigorous  and  crowded  with  interested  people 
is  the  one  that  is  set  with  all  its  strength  even 
to  sacrifice  to  service.  Jesus  Christ  has  a  world- 
program.  He  called  live  men  about  him.  The 
spirit  of  the  missionary  was  in  our  organization, 
and  cannot  die  from  our  story.  Whether  we  go 
far  or  stay  near,  the  same  spirit  must  be  in  us. 
The  church  simply  must  be  missionary.  Every¬ 
where  must  be  the  practical  evidence  that  we 
believe  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  will  meet  and 
satisfy  all  the  needs  of  mankind.  This  is  a  vital 
day  to  make  that  claim.  There  is  just  now  a  very 
evident  interest  in  social  endeavor  shorn  of  re¬ 
ligious  motive.  There  is  need  of  the  clear  note 
of  Christianity’s  claim.  The  social  message  that 
leaves  that  out  will  fail.  I  spent  the  Fourth  of 
July  in  one  of  our  great  prisons.  It  was  hot. 
The  big  open  court  surrounded  by  the  high  walls 
of  the  prison  was  shut  off  from  every  breeze,  and 
offered  the  streaming  sun  an  unhindered  chance 
to  spend  itself.  Twelve  hundred  men  gathered 
for  the  games.  Few  ball  games  I  have  ever  at¬ 
tended  had  such  enthusiasm ;  Blacks  vs.  Whites. 
Then  they  ate  pie  in  contest,  and  watermelon 
with  a  splash,  and  then  they  marched  into 
the  big  corridors  about  the  cells  for  a  concert 


THE  CHUECH  FOE  TO-DAY 


1G1 


and  an  address.  I  looked  out  over  that  sea  of 
upturned  faces  with  strange  impressions.  Tliey 
crowded  tight  against  the  big  box  on  which  I 
stood  when  at  my  request  the  restraint  which 
discipline  always  kept  over  them  had  been 
relaxed,  and  they  could  draw  near.  I  could 
scarce  drive  my  mind  away  from  the  tragedies  I 
knew  were  gazing  up  at  me.  Pathetic  faces, 
tender  faces,  hardened  faces,  defiant  faces, 
crushed  faces,  revengeful  faces,  shame-covered 
faces,  but  men,  men,  men,  always  men.  I  could 
see  over  beyond  them.  After  it  was  all  over, 
and  I  sat  without  the  great  doors  talking  wfith 
the  man  who  stays  down  there,  I  said,  “Doesn’t 
it  depress  you?”  Then  he  told  me  some  of  his 
heart-deep  experiences.  I  said :  “I  couldn’t  stay 
in  such  a  place,  it  would  crush  my  soul.”  He 
replied,  “Neither  could  I  were  it  not  for  the 
fountain.”  I  asked  what  fountain  he  meant. 
He  replied,  “My  Christian  experience.”  I  have 
thought  much  about  that  reply  ever  since.  The 
social  program,  no  matter  how  well  planned 
and  skillfully  laid  it  may  be,  will  falter  and  fail 
unless  it  has  behind  and  within  it  a  deep  reli¬ 
gious  motive.  Lincoln  Steffens  gave  us  a  remark¬ 
able  testimony  of  that  fact  at  a  conclusive  point 
of  his  experience.  We  need  Christianity  fitted 
into  the  troubles  of  to-day.  There  is  an  obliga¬ 
tion  attendant  upon  Christian  profession.  Its 
ability  is  its  responsibility.  The  rampant  mate- 


162 


THE  EXPECTED  CHUECH 


rialism  that  has  almost  wrecked  our  civilization 
calls  for  some  passionate  application  of  the  faith 
we  hold.  It  is  time  the  gospel  of  Jesus  were 
given  the  fair  chance  its  origin  and  heroic  estab¬ 
lishment  entitle  it  to  among  us.  It  is  not  some 
strange  and  inapplicable  thing  we  are  endeavor¬ 
ing  to  do.  Jesus  did  not  come  to  splice  a  new 
piece  of  cloth  to  an  old  and  wasted  garment.  He 
came  to  make  strong  the  well  nigh  broken 
threads  of  life,  and  to  weave  again  into  many  a 
torn  place  the  strong  warp  of  the  renewed  pur¬ 
pose.  The  assurance  of  such  results  as  our 
religion  constantly  achieves  should  set  us  all 
in  enthusiasm  in  its  service.  George  Eliot  was 
sitting  before  the  fireplace  engaged  in  conversa¬ 
tion  with  a  friend  one  evening.  Something  shook 
the  house,  and  a  rare  vase  that  stood  on  the 
mantle  toppled  to  fall  to  the  floor.  The  great 
author  saw  it,  and  reaching  out  quickly  caught 
it.  As  she  stood  it  once  more  on  its  place  safely, 
she  sank  back  into  her  chair  and  said,  “Would 
God  the  day  might  come  when  we  would  all 
reach  out  as  unconsciously  and  enthusiastically 
to  save  a  tottering  man  or  woman,  as  we  do  to 
save  a  fine  vase.”  The  story  has  long  been  a 
whip  to  my  all  too  little  endeavor.  I  am 
ashamed  to  think  back  into  my  life.  So  little 
have  I  done.  So  many  opportunities  I  have  not 
accepted.  So  many  shades  I  might  have  lifted  to 
let  in  the  rays  of  hope  to  some  who  were  sitting 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  TO-DAY 


163 


in  darkness.  How  many  the  begging  opportu¬ 
nity  I  have  missed  to  really  comfort  sorrowing 
women  in  agony  at  the  graves  of  their  first-born ! 
Men,  harassed  by  business  cares  they  have  not 
known  how  to  endure,  and  tossed  every  whither 
bv  the  fever  of  their  distress  I  have  failed  to 
bring  our  message  to.  Young  men  and  young 
women  fighting  with  beasts  of  passion,  I  have 
not  shown  the  way  to  deliverance.  Trembling 
hearts  of  those  who  were  passing  down  into  the 
valley  where  lie  the  long  shadows  of  sorrow,  I 
have  failed  to  comfort  and  lead.  The  gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  was  intrusted  into  our  hands  with 
an  attendant  responsibility  that  demands  the 
passion  of  the  missionary.  The  opportunity  of 
service  is  before  us.  The  call  of  God  is  clear  in 
our  ears.  The  church  of  Jesus  Christ  stands  in 
every  one  of  its  people  for  the  very  best  there  is 
for  men  everywhere. 


X 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  THE  CITY 

“Arise,  and  go  into  the  city,  and  it  shall  be  told  thee 
what  thou  must  do.” — Acts  9.  6. 

I  like  that  verse.  It  has  such  frank  approach 
to  the  real  matter  in  hand.  Never  mind  now  to 
hold  a  committee  meeting  about  how  to  reach 
the  city,  or  how  to  solve  the  difficulties  attendant 
upon  work  in  a  city.  Get  up  and  go  right  on  into 
the  city  and  you  will  find  out  there  what  you 
should  do.  Without  seeking  in  this  place  now 
for  the  actual  matter  as  related  to  Saul,  who  was 
in  trouble  with  his  life,  and  was  seeking  to  find 
some  way  through  his  blindness  into  the  deliver¬ 
ance  of  himself  from  a  wrong  career,  let  us  make 
bold  to  read  the  instructions  as  significant  and 
showing  a  way  straight  into  the  heart  of  one  of 
our  great  tasks.  I  incline  to  believe  the  church 
to-day  in  its  difficult  position  before  the  city 
problem  has  perfect  right  to  read  this  verse 
again  as  instruction  for  its  conduct.  Get  into 
the  city.  Don’t  endeavor  to  find  an  easy  way  to 
get  out  of  the  city  where  surviving  as  an  insti¬ 
tution  merely  designed  to  survive  is  easy;  but 

164 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  THE  CITY  165 


get  right  into  the  city,  where  tasks  are  hard, 
and  where  multitudes  wait  your  ministry,  and 
there  you  will  be  told  what  to  do,  and  find  some 
way  to  do  it.  That  sounds  at  least  positive 
enough  to  be  interesting.  It  sounds  as  though  it 
proposed  that  whatever  failure  did  attend  its 
work  would  be  that  failure  which  is  joined  to 
honest  endeavor.  I  am  little  concerned  about 
mere  failure  or  success  as  men  measure  them.  I 
am  greatly  concerned  that  from  me  there  shall 
have  been  delivered  among  men  an  honest  en¬ 
deavor  to  do  what  needed  doing. 

I  would  not  seem  to  pose  here  now  as  one 
claiming  any  superior  qualifications  to  propose 
a  program  for  the  church  in  the  city.  It  is  not 
my  credential  in  qualification  with  which  I 
come.  I  am  only  sure  I  believe  in  the  church’s 
mission  for  the  city,  as  a  supreme  task  before  it, 
for  the  reason  the  people  are  in  the  city.  The 
Church  of  Jesus  Christ  has  been  set  to  save  the 
people.  I  have  had  enough  experience  in  different 
types  of  city  churches  to  furnish  me  a  point  of 
observation  from  which  I  believe  I  can  see  some 
of  the  vital  principles  involved  in  the  problem. 

Every  observer  of  the  modern  movements  of 
society  must  agree  that  the  tendency,  very  evi¬ 
dent  in  our  day,  is  the  organization  of  our  whole 
life  upon  a  nonreligious  basis.  Such  a  serious 
social  fact  as  that  must  demand  earnest  attention 
of  those  who  lay  any  claim  to  be  the  followers  of 


166 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


Him  who  planned  and  announced  the  plan  of  a 
religious  redemption  of  all  the  world.  The  re¬ 
organization  of  society  must  not  be  on  a  nonre¬ 
ligious  basis,  and  the  place  where  the  social  con¬ 
flict  will  be  settled  will  be  in  the  great  centers 
of  population.  The  church  in  the  city  is  the  most 
important  church  in  the  world,  for  the  simple 
but  overwhelming  reason  that  the  people  are 
there.  The  importance  of  any  church  is  its  rela¬ 
tionship  to  the  people.  There  is  no  hope,  nor  is 
there  any  reason  to  desire  that  the  city  church 
should  hope,  merely  to  continue  to  exist  because 
it  existed  in  a  less  strenuous  yesterday.  There  is 
no  acceptable  plea  to  make  for  any  type  of 
church  to  continue  to  exist  merely  because  it  did 
one  day  an  effectual  service.  The  business  of 
the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  can  never  be  done  on 
this  earth  by  a  merely  existing  church,  nor  by  a 
church  to  which  the  matter  of  existing  is  in  any 
manner  a  concern.  We  were  not  established  to 
exist.  The  church  in  itself  is  not  an  end;  it  is 
distinctly  a  means.  Its  profession  as  being  the 
divine  institution  of  our  Lord  justifies  the  un¬ 
compromising  expectation  of  the  world  in  which 
it  has  been  established  that  it  shall  actually 
succeed  not  merely  in  keeping  alive,  but  in  mak¬ 
ing  regnant  its  religious  ideals  everywhere. 
There  is  no  alternative  before  Christianity  other 
than  universal  triumph  or  universal  collapse. 

Prince  Bismarck  early  achieved  a  notoriety,  of 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  THE  CITY  167 


one  kind  at  least,  by  declaring  that  great  cities 
were  sores  on  the  body  politic;  which  liability 
he  proposed  to  remove  by  annihilating  the  cities. 
The  treatment  was,  however,  not  only  too  vio¬ 
lent,  it  was  impossible.  Some  one  suggested 
that  his  cure  was  the  same  as  a  proposition  to 
cure  a  case  of  headache  by  cutting  off  the  head. 
We  need  not  endeavor  to  escape  the  fact  of  the 
great  city.  We  will  not  scatter  it.  We  will 
never  make  a  farm  of  Manhattan  Island,  nor 
grow  potatoes  along  Woodward  Avenue.  “Back 
to  the  country”  sounds  good,  and  makes  a  good 
sign  for  the  sale  of  subdivisions,  but  it  will  never 
solve  the  problem  of  the  city.  We  are  bound  to 
have  the  cities.  Our  hope  is  not  to  be  found  in 
working  them  out,  but,  rather,  is  to  be  worked 
out  in  them.  With  all  the  danger-cries  that  have 
been  started  about  the  cities,  our  civilization  is 
not  scared  about  them.  Every  municipality  feels 
the  pulse  of  its  own  life  in  a  satisfaction  founded 
on  a  constant  and  increasing  growth.  We  throw 
enthusiasm  into  the  pursuit  of  numbers,  and 
eagerly  on  census  years  seek  out  every  available 
human  to  establish  our  position.  We  are  not 
afraid  of  the  city.  We  long  to  pile  figures  of 
great  cities.  Our  problem  is  to  make  them  good 
cities.  The  mere  matter  of  numbers  is  not  in 
itself  a  problem,  other  than  of  feeding  and  sani- 
tation.  But  the  congested  districts  in  our  clus* 
tered  population-centers  present  to  us  the  most 


168 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


characteristic  product  of  our  new  civilization, 
and  keep  liable  ever  the  spreading  of  undesir¬ 
able  things,  diseases  or  ideas,  which  may  in  any 
one  member  become  easily  contagious  to  the 
whole  mass.  Xo  other  nation  has  ever  been  sub¬ 
jected  to  the  city  problem  in  the  manner  it  is 
now  presented  in  America.  Our  serious  problem 
of  immigration  brings  added  liability  to  the  city 
in  our  country.  The  simple  crowding  together 
of  the  native  folk  of  a  nation  offers  chance  for 
vice  and  corruption.  There  are  serious  slum 
problems  in  London  and  Glasgow  and  Paris  and 
Rome.  But  they  are  native  problems.  They  do 
not  carry  peril  to  their  nations  as  do  the  con¬ 
gestions  of  cosmopolitan  citizenship  in  American 
cities.  We  face  the  serious  fact  of  multitudes 
of  people  coming  from  every  quarter  of  the  globe 
without  any  sense  of  our  national  ideas  or  insti¬ 
tutions.  The  problem  of  our  cities  is  being 
shouted  at  us  in  such  a  babel  of  tongues  that 
were  it  not  for  the  universal  sense  of  need  we 
feel,  we  would  not  understand  them.  But  the 
common  distress  of  life  may  cry  with  an  un¬ 
known  tongue,  and  we  will  understand  it.  We 
know  what  the  city  calls  for,  and  we  know  that 
the  Church  of  Christ  in  America  has  world-op¬ 
portunity  in  its  cities.  The  city  faced  by  us  to¬ 
day  demands  consecrated  earnestness  that  runs 
straight  into  sacrifice,  but  sacrifice  was  never 
considered  an  excuse  in  Christian  conduct;  it 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  THE  CITY  169 


lias  always  been  a  characteristic.  Dr.  Scudder, 
in  a  thoughtful  chapter  a  few  years  ago,  had  a 
contention,  based  upon  the  fact  that  the  agen¬ 
cies  that  were  producing  cities  carried  also  a 
sure  tendency  to  a  materialism  which  would  up¬ 
root  the  spiritual  elements  in  society,  as  it  built 
high  the  material  characteristic.  He  made  this 
statement,  which  has  clung  to  my  memory  ever 
since  hearing  it,  “The  home  and  the  church,  the 
two  great  moral  institutions  of  society,  are  three 
times  as  weak  in  the  city  as  in  the  country,  and 
growing  weaker  rather  than  stronger.”  I  do  not 
know  how  he  arrived  at  his  proportions,  but  I 
am  not  inclined  to  dispute  so  grave  a  statement 
on  mere  figures  of  proportion.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  the  great  city,  wherein  is  made  evident  the 
only  strata  of  society  we  are  troubled  with; 
where  poverty  and  wealth  are  each  congested, 
thus  beholding  each  other  as  though  social  dis¬ 
tinguishing  facts;  where  evils  are  easily  en¬ 
trenched  ;  where  fascinating  pleasures,  which 
are  set  to  cater  to  pure  selfishness,  are  openly 
exposed;  where  the  strangeness  attendant  upon 
multitude  seems  to  loose  the  moral  restraint ;  the 
great  city  if  left  to  itself  will  prove  our  swift 
destruction.  But  I  am  sure  also  I  can  match  the 
liability  with  the  hope  that  that  same  city,  with 
its  gathered  energy  and  resources  and  possibility 
of  cooperation,  can,  if  saved,  become  the  great 
modern  center  of  power  in  righteousness.  That 


170 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


is  the  challenge  and  the  opportunity  before  the 
church  for  the  city. 

The  outstanding  problem  of  home  missions 
used  to  be  in  outlying  unchurched  territory.  It 
has  now  become  the  problem  of  unchurched 
populations.  The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  must 
get  into  this  task.  There  is  no  greater  challenge 
to  the  Christianity  of  this  hour  than  the  chal¬ 
lenge  to  keep  live  spiritual  centers  of  Christian 
contact  in  the  midst  of  the  cities.  The  very 
things  that  demand  the  presence  of  the  church 
there  most  are  likewise  the  things  that  make  it 
hard  for  the  church  to  live  there.  All  that,  how¬ 
ever,  should  but  serve  to  make  us  who  call  our¬ 
selves  Christian  more  enthusiastic  to  keep  the 
church  healthy  there.  Difficulty  is  no  excuse  for 
abandonment.  The  city’s  need  must  be  the  ap¬ 
peal  that  will  keep  our  altars  of  worship  there. 
We  will  not  have  met  our  obligation  by  opening 
a  mission  and  building  an  altar  where  the  city 
can  go  if  it  will.  We  must  get  into  the  very 
heart  of  the  city’s  need,  and  kneel  there  and 
pray  with  the  city. 

The  only  way  the  great  crowding  host  of  men 
and  women  and  children  who  make  up  the  city 
shall  ever  be  made  beautiful  is  by  having  among 
them  and  with  them  those  who  by  the  power  of 
God  can  both  defy  and  delight  in  the  city.  It 
can  only  be  defied  by  the  soul  who  has  resources 
outside  of  it  all,  and  it  cannot  be  delighted  in, 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  THE  CITY  171 


nor  helped,  saye  by  the  soul  who  has  resources 
inside  the  crowd,  who,  in  fact,  is  one  of  them. 
The  city,  with  its  own  keen  sorrows  and  con¬ 
gested  sins,  has  come  to-day  to  expect  something 
from  the  church.  That  attitude  is  both  compli¬ 
ment  and  crisis  to  the  church.  The  beckon  of 
the  city  is  that  we  shall  now,  haying  proyen  our 
ability  to  work  out  for  ourselves  a  place  among 
the  world’s  institutions,  prove  likewise  our 
heaven-high  relationship  by  the  ministry  we 
shall  perform,  and  meet  it  at  its  hard  places. 
We  are  ashamed  of  a  retiring  church.  We 
must  have  an  advancing  church.  The  trium¬ 
phant  stride,  necessary  to  the  church  that 
marches  to  the  salvation  of  the  world,  will  never 
catch  step  to  the  faint  bugle-call  of  mere  sur¬ 
vival.  We  are  bound  to  thrive  in  the  most  needy 
situations.  God  means  that  the  great  city  shall 
be  reached  and  regenerated.  Attendant  difficul¬ 
ties  are  nothing  to  plead,  by  an  institution  whose 
profession  and  creed  link  it  to  omnipotence. 
Need  is  our  appeal.  There  can  be  no  refusal 
from  the  Church  of  God  to  the  extended  hand 
of  real  need. 

I  shall  never  be  able  to  erase  from  the  retina 
of  my  memory  the  miserable  leper  beggars  sit¬ 
ting  along  the  roadside  outside  Jerusalem  over 
beside  Gethsemane  and  the  Virgin’s  Tomb.  I 
had  grown  callous  to  beggars.  The  ordinary  ap¬ 
peal  of  a  beggar’s  outstretched  hand  had  lost  its 


172 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


influence  upon  me  because  it  had  become  so  con¬ 
stant.  I  could  pass  beggars  in  the  streets  and 
forget  them.  But  those  poor  lepers'  I  could 
not  pass.  How  compelling  their  cry!  What 
wretchedness  in  their  rags!  What  undeniable 
appeal  in  their  outstretched  arms !  Fingers 
gone,  palms  gone,  mere  stubs  of  arms  held  out 
by  some.  Tin  buckets  sitting  before  them  to 
catch  the  offered  alms.  I  could  not  pass  them 
by.  “For  their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself,”  were 
the  heroic  words  with  which  our  Master  identi¬ 
fied  himself  with  all  his  divine  powers  to  the 
very  sentiment  of  human  need.  We  who  follow 
him  cannot  avoid  his  conclusion.  The  cry  of  the 
great  city  cannot  fail  to  awaken  our  consecra¬ 
tion.  The  finger  of  duty  points  straight  :  “Go 
into  the  city  and  it  shall  be  told  thee  what  thou 
must  do.”  Told  thee  there :  Get  to  the  place  of 
your  service  and  your  orders  will  meet  you  there. 
That  is  a  new  order  in  religious  service.  This  is 
a  new  sense  of  the  expectant  communion  with 
God.  The  ancient  ideal  had  been  to  get  into  the 
solitude  of  lonely  places,  and  there,  with  all  the 
noise  of  the  world  shut  out,  listen  for  God.  Here 
is  a  new  word.  Here  is  an  order  that  breaks 
with  the  past.  Get  into  the  stir  and  whirl  of 
the  city,  and  listen  there.  The  Christian  Com¬ 
mission  restates  religion. 

The  first  problem  of  Christian  life  is  to  enter 
actually  into  the  very  condition  in  which  earth’s 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  THE  CITY  173 


millions  must  live,  and  discover  right  there  the 
message  of  God’s  ministry.  There  have  only 
been  thus  far  found  two  ways  in  which  religion 
can  regard  itself  toward  the  world.  There  was 
only  known  one  way  until  Christ  came.  The  old 
effort  of  religion  was  to  save  itself  by  avoiding 
the  world.  The  new  way  is  to  save  the  world 
through  yourself.  It  is  a  coward’s  plan  to  desert 
the  world  because  it  is  unclean.  It  is  a  Chris¬ 
tian’s  crusade  to  make  the  world  clean  because 
the  world’s  conqueror  has  come.  Get  into  the 
city  and  listen  for  God,  there  where  life  battles 
tumultuous  and  strenuous !  There  where  streets 
are  crowded  with  men  and  women !  There  where 
love,  and  hate,  and  discord,  and  harmony,  and 
rivalry,  and  jealousy,  and  life,  and  death  are;  get 
right  there  and  listen !  That  word  has  the  com¬ 
mand  of  the  Christ  back  of  it  who  had  then  died 
and  risen  from  the  dead  in  order  to  get  to  man¬ 
kind  the  message  of  salvation.  He  who  had  wept 
over  the  city,  he  who  knew  the  tragedy  of  the 
crowd,  he  who  could  not  stay  on  the  mountain 
top,  even  in  communion  with  heaven,  while  the 
multitude  in  need  stretched  out  appealing 
hands.  This  is  new!  This  is  Christian.  Get 
into  the  city.  You  will  meet  God  there,  because 
men  and  women  and  children  are  there,  and  they 
are  God’s  chief  concern  on  this  earth.  The 
cloister  was  a  hideous  mistake.  It  must  never 
again  have  an  emphasis  as  a  Christian  program. 


174 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


We  must  plant  ourselves  in  the  very  midst  of  the 
most  needy  situations  of  the  world  and  not  only 
exist  but  prosper  there. 

I  have  a  profound  conviction  that  God  has 
arranged  a  divine  balance  in  human  equipment, 
a  balance  to  be  proven  and  justified  in  a  regen¬ 
erated  whole  race  of  mankind.  Man  has  in  him¬ 
self  sufficient  energy  to  unitedly  bring  success 
to  all.  To  me  there  is  no  finer  call  of  the  gospel 
than  this,  that  the  superabundance  of  ability  in 
some  and  the  handicap  in  others  can  be  made  to 
unite  in  hope  for  all.  The  serious  situation  with 
our  day,  however,  is  that  the  strong  by  their  very 
strength  are  becoming  affiliated.  We  have  made 
most  of  our  discussions  of  the  problem  of  our 
cities  around  the  things  caused  by  the  conges¬ 
tion  of  misery.  The  wretchedness  of  human  life 
forced  into  the  seething  caldron  of  our  city  slums 
is  surely  a  crying  condition  which  needs  help. 
I  incline  to  believe,  however,  when  we  think 
straight  into  this  we  will  agree  that  we  have  been 
putting  undue  emphasis  upon  what,  under  pres¬ 
ent-day  customs,  has  become  a  compulsion;  and 
you  cannot  cure  troubles  by  dealing  with  result¬ 
ant  elements  of  those  troubles.  We  discuss  the 
slum  with  solemn  conclusions  that  it  is  a  dan¬ 
gerous  environment  in  which  to  grow  human 
life.  Every  inhabitant  of  the  slum  will  agree. 
They  need  no  argument.  The  condemnation  is 
axiomatic.  The  folks  who  make  the  condition 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  THE  CITY  175 


deplore  it  as  much  as  those  who  inquire  into  it. 
The  slum  is  a  double-faced  problem.  The  suburb 
is  just  as  much  a  problem  as  is  the  slum.  The 
problem  disclosed  in  the  slum  must  be  considered 
from  the  standpoint  of  the  suburb  if  you  would 
get  the  honest  view.  The  congestion  of  enlight¬ 
enment  is  as  serious  a  problem  to  the  whole 
situation  as  is  the  congestion  of  misery.  The 
task  of  the  church  is  to  save  mankind.  The  extra 
strength  of  the  world,  which  because  of  its 
abundant  endowment,  or  by  the  mere  chance  of 
some  good  fortune,  has  a  margin  of  privilege,  is 
to-day  sadly  withdrawing  itself  from  the  needy 
situations  of  the  world.  The  strength  for  the 
evangelization  of  the  slum  is  to-day  reposing  in 
the  splendid  equipment  of  the  suburb.  The 
suburb  is  voluntary;  the  slum  is  compulsory. 
The  strength  which  made  possible  the  flight  into 
the  suburb  must  likewise  carry  there  the  respon¬ 
sibility  toward  those  who  could  not  escape,  and 
so  by  handicap  of  ability  are  left  to  constitute 
the  slum.  The  cry  of  the  great  city  to-day  is 
tuned  at  that  very  contradiction.  The  slum  can¬ 
not  lift  itself  out  of  its  distress.  The  underman 
cannot  rouse  himself  and  shake  off  the  burden 
of  his  handicap.  There  is  too  much  on  him.  He 
must  do  his  best  and  I  have  faith  to  believe  he 
will.  I  am  not  asking  that  his  own  burden  shall 
be  borne  by  anyone  else.  It  is  good  to  let  him 
carry  his  own  responsibility. 


176 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


I  remember  a  few  years  ago  the  owner  of  a 
tall  building  found  his  nearest  neighbor,  a  little 
one-story  saloon  building,  coughing  smoke  and 
gas  up  against  the  big  overtopping  neighbor. 
The  big  building  instituted  suit  and  won  the 
case  compelling  his  neighbor  to  build  an  eigh¬ 
teen  story  smoke-stack  on  his  little  one-story 
head  just  to  recognize  his  obligation  to  those 
above  him.  I  am  not  advocating  that  the  small 
and  the  weak  shall  not  carry  their  own  obliga¬ 
tion.  I  believe  they  will  do  that.  The  under 
man  surely  thus  far  in  this  world  has  borne  his 
share.  But  because  he  is  the  under  man  he  can 
no  more  than  furnish  the  margin  on  which  he 
shall  be  rescued.  Goethe  once  wrote  this 
strangely  egotistical  and  self-sure  word:  “The 
man  who  has  life  in  him  feels  himself  to  be  here 
for  his  own  sake  and  not  for  the  public.”  It  was 
one  of  Goethe’s  not  too  rare  heathen  spots  made 
manifest.  It  has  been  refuted  many  eloquent 
times.  Personal  issues  must  be  swallowed  up  in 
a  sense  of  something  greater.  Every  man  and 
woman  must  came  to  appreciate  that  position 
within  a  farther-flung  horizon  than  self.  Xo  one 
is  big  enough  to  furnish  bounds  for  his  own  en¬ 
deavors.  The  evangelization  of  the  slum  is 
bound  inseparably  to  the  suburb.  The  extra 
strength  which  makes  a  foremost  possible  must 
be  added  to  the  handicap  which  makes  a  hind¬ 
most  imperative ;  and  together  they  will  both  win. 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  THE  CITY  177 


I  saw  a  college  footrace.  It  was  a  handicap. 
It  interested  me  very  much  because  the  best  run¬ 
ner  started  behind  for  the  good  reason  that  he 
was  the  best  runner.  The  poorest  runner  was 
out  in  front  to  start.  It  was  a  new  version  for 
service.  “For  their  sakes  I  sanctify  myself,” 
were  the  divinely  heroic  words  voicing  for  Jesus 
that  sentiment  perfected  to  the  life  about  and 
ahead  of  him.  The  command  of  God  is  sounding 
in  and  back  of  this  cry  of  the  city,  and  says  in 
unmistakable  words,  “Let  the  strong  bear  the 
burden  of  the  weak.”  The  voice  of  the  city  is 
not  a  mere  roar  and  grind  of  wheels  and  shafts 
and  machinery.  That  voice  is  intoned  in  the 
sorrow  of  human  hearts.  It  has  in  it  the  stir¬ 
ring  appeal  of  tastes,  and  powers,  and  joys,  and 
hopes,  and  virtues,  and  sins — all  those  familiar 
things  of  our  own  hearts.  Jesus  never  failed  to 
detect  them.  He  unraveled  the  composite  cry 
of  the  streets  into  the  pleas  of  individuals.  His 
great  heart  was  ever  for  them.  He  gave  himself 
for  their  sakes.  O  God,  hear  the  cry  of  our  city ! 
Have  done  the  prayer.  We  have  prayed  thus  too 
long.  God  does  hear  that  cry.  God  help  me  to 
appreciate  the  cry  that  has  arisen  to  a  very  roar 
in  my  ears  to-day.  In  the  city  we  must  discern 
what  now  God  has  to  say  to  us  here.  The  church 
must  meet  the  situation.  The  salvation  of  the 
so-called  upper  class  will  be  found  in  its  evan¬ 
gelization  of  the  under  class,  if  the  variant  alti- 


178 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


tude  can  be  detected.  You  who  have  strength 
enough  to  absolutely  eliminate  the  problem  of 
making  a  living,  know  you  your  strength  is 
needed  in  supplement,  for  vast  numbers  are 
daily  actually  utterly  done  out  in  the  hard  fight 
to  keep  the  wolf  from  the  door.  There  are  times 
when  I  am  blinded  with  my  own  tears  and  sick¬ 
ened  with  the  touch  of  the  misery  of  our  troubled, 
crowding  life.  The  city  is  jammed  with  sorrow 
and  need,  and  holding  it  all  square  before  my 
face,  and  tight  to  my  interest.  There  come  times 
of  tense  heartache  to  me.  The  sins  of  men  rise  so 
menacingly  that  the  reform  of  the  world  seems 
well-nigh  hopeless.  I  have  many,  many  times 
gone  from  my  sacred  pulpit  back  to  my  study, 
and  have  seen  the  tiny  efforts  of  my  little  feeble 
ministry  fail  and  disappear  like  the  bubbles  I 
used  to  blow  and  start  away  looking  so  splendid, 
reflecting  all  about  them  on  their  bright  faces, 
only  to  snap  out  to  leave  absolutely  nothing  where 
they  were.  O  my  God,  I  have  cried,  what  a  task  is 
this  to  which  I  am  set !  I  am  in  the  city !  I  wait 
thy  word !  Speak !  Speak,  Lord,  that  I  may  know 
what  and  how  I  ought  here  to  do  thy  will  for 
the  city!  I  lift  my  eyes  away  from  my  own 
feebleness.  To  look  at  my  little  hand,  and  head, 
and  heart  were  discouragement  complete.  I 
would  open  my  ear  to  thy  word,  and  my  eye  to 
thy  presence.  It  is  God’s  personal  presence  that 
puts  courage  into  my  soul.  I  even  grow  confi- 


THE  CHURCH  FOR  THE  CITY  179 


dent  with  him,  I  am  ready  to  make  boast.  The 
city’s  cry  will  be  heard,  and  the  city  will  be 
saved  when  God’s  church  will  get  earnestly  into 
the  citv  and  there  do  God’s  will. 

V 

“The  greatest  church  in  all  the  land. 

With  wealth  and  power  in  its  control, 

Holds  naught  but  ashes  in  its  hand. 

Unless  it  guards  the  city’s  soul. 

What  means  this  stately  granite  pile, 

To  Christian  worship  set  apart. 

If  crowded  streets,  mile  after  mile. 

Feel  not  the  throbbing  of  its  heart? 

“Respond !  O  Church !  these  myriad  calls. 
Appealing,  come  from  street  and  mart. 

Where  every  man  whom  sin  enthralls 
Expects  a  welcome  to  thy  heart. 

Reach  out,  O  Church!  this  is  the  hour 
To  make  thy  ministry  complete! 

God  waits,  to  furnish  thee  the  power. 

To  lift  the  city  to  his  feet.” 


XI 


I 

THE  CHURCH  AND  CHILDHOOD 

“And  Jesus  called  a  little  child  unto  him,  and  set  him 
in  the  midst  of  them.” — Matthew  18.  2. 

The  challenge  of  childhood  stands  squarely 
before  the  church  that  engages  itself  to  save  the 
world.  There  is  no  more  opportune  challenge 
before  us,  and  yet  a  challenge  to  which  a  great 
percentage  of  our  people  are  seemingly  indiffer¬ 
ent.  I  make  such  a  statement  founded  upon  an 
experience  in  the  regular  work  of  the  pastorate, 
in  charges  ranging  from  the  country  school- 
house,  as  the  neighborhood  meeting  place,  to  the 
strenuous  program  of  the  city  church.  It  is  a 
pitiably  small  percentage  of  the  church  people 
who  appreciate  even  in  a  small  degree  the  cru¬ 
cial  issue  which  is  strung  before  us  in  our  ac¬ 
cessible  childhood.  The  eternal  responsibility 
devolving  upon  us  as  a  church  to-dav,  for  the 
molding  of  our  own  childhood,  and  the  child¬ 
hood  within  our  easy  reach,  is  the  most  funda¬ 
mentally  constructive  fact  that  presents  itself 
to  us,  if  we  would  transform  to  righteousness 
this  sin-broken  world.  We  can  never  save  a 
world  by  the  hard,  slow  work  of  reclamation. 

180 


THE  CHUBCH  AND  CHILDHOOD  181 


We  must „ save  it  by  spiritual  cultivation  which 
will  root  itself  in  youth.  We  are  wearied  often 
these  days  by  the  continuous  presentation  of 
problems.  We  have  had  so  many  problems 
brought  to  our  attention  that  we  no  longer  are 
startled  by  them.  But  of  one  thing  have  I  be¬ 
come  thoroughly  convinced.  In  the  abundance  of 
the  discovered  things  that  are  wrong,  and  the 
serious  problems  presented  in  finding  out  ways 
to  combat  them,  everywhere  they  have  served  to 
center  the  keenest  attention  of  those  who  love 
and  aspire  for  the  world’s  upcome  upon  the 
foundational  issue  in  childhood.  Every  great 
social  and  religious  problem  ultimately  returns 
to  the  child  for  its  solution.  That  statement  will 
not  meet  much,  if  any,  dispute,  and  yet  it  is  no 
more  than  a  mere  passive  conviction  among  us, 
and  does  not  yet  inspire  a  united  campaign  to 
capture  and  save  the  children. 

A  few  years  ago  there  was  a  quite  well  adver¬ 
tised  interest  about  the  world  of  a  doctor  who 
claimed  to  have  discovered  a  cure  for  tubercu¬ 
losis.  He  was  a  German  physician,  and  at  once, 
because  of  his  scientific  standing,  his  claim  was 
given  scientific  care  in  observation,  and  he  was 
assigned  a  special  company  of  children  for  his 
experiments.  They  announced  at  once  that  if 
the  doctor’s  method  was  correct,  and  his  treat¬ 
ment  successful,  there  was  no  reason  why  tuber¬ 
culosis  should  not  be  absolutely  stamped  out  in 


182 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


one  generation.  Treat  the  children,  they  said. 
How  keen  the  scientific  conclusion!  The  name 
of  that  physician  will  not  now  be  known  to 
many  who  read  these  words,  and  is  remembered 
by  me  only  because  I  clipped  the  accounts  with 
mere  watchful  interest,  which  would  have  be¬ 
come  world  knowledge  to-day  if  the  plan  had 
succeeded.  They  tested  it  on  childhood.  How 
eloquent  that  scientific  method  for  the  church! 
We  are  in  reach  of  success  when  we  accept  the 
challenge.  We  cannot  go  into  the  mature  situa¬ 
tions  and  work  out  there  a  complete  social  evolu¬ 
tion  from  the  rugged  already  set  characters  of 
men  and  women ;  though  we  have  thus  far  in  our 
endeavors  spent  the  overwhelming  amount  of 
our  enthusiasm  and  endeavor  in  that  line;  but 
the  children  can  be  molded.  The  fierce  and  oft 
forbidding  problems  of  immigration  to  our  coun¬ 
try  never  will  be  handled  successfully  by  spend¬ 
ing  our  energy  on  the  adult  immigrants,  who 
come  emerging  out  of  century-molded  condi¬ 
tions  which  have  set  their  lines  and  ways  and 
prejudices  in  their  characters,  and  dictated  their 
judgments  and  thoughts  from  childhood.  The 
only  hope  this  to-day  badly  troubled  nation  of 
ours  can  see,  before  the  problem  of  our  pouring 
immigration,  is  in  the  childhood  thus  brought, 
and  made  opportune  to  us  to  mold  to  our  new 
ways  and  win  to  our  new  ideals.  The  rescue 
work  in  mission  halls  on  the  Boweries  of  our 


THE  CHURCH  AND  CHILDHOOD  183 


great  cities  presents  a  constant  challenge  of 
evangelistic  interest.  They  pull  out  of  the  slough 
of  sin  and  vice  a  few  remarkable  and  hope-inspir¬ 
ing  cases.  But  they  cannot  save  the  cities.  The 
slough  of  evil  will  fill  up  faster  than  rescuers 
can  pull  the  victims  out.  I  favor  the  mission 
work,  I  am  always  glad  to  lend  every  possible 
help  I  can  to  the  interesting  endeavor.  But  it  is 
salvage;  it  is  not  remedial.  The  real  task  is  to 
defend  the  little  ones  from  the  liability  of  the 
slough  of  the  slum,  and  to  drain  that  slough. 
Until  the  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  turns  its  vigor¬ 
ous  attention  to  methods  constructive,  with  child¬ 
hood  as  its  objective,  our  cities  will  become  an 
ever-increasing  menace  to  our  nation  and  to  the 
whole  civilization  of  which  we  are  a  part. 

There  are  a  great  many  things  which  carry 
alarm  for  the  student  of  conditions  as  they  are 
in  society  to-dav.  He  who  seeks  startling  human 
facts  will  not  have  far  to  go.  But  the  most  signifi¬ 
cant  startle  I  have  felt  in  any  news  I  have  read 
for  a  long  time  came  to  me  recently  with  a  report 
issued  by  the  Sunday  School  Board  of  our 
church.  The  appalling  fact  in  America  to-day  to 
me  is  that  eight  million  of  our  children  are  now 
receiving  absolutely  no  religious  instruction, 
Protestant  or  Catholic.  One  third  of  our  child¬ 
hood  is  Christless.  One  third  of  the  generation 
upon  which  we  are  to  found  the  hope  of  to-mor¬ 
row  is  unapproached  for  religion.  The  other  two 


184 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


thirds  are  poorly  enough  made  ready  by  the 
slight  attention  religious  we  give  to  preserve 
that  two-thirds  proportion.  But  one  third  of 
our  children  are  absolutely  religiously  aban¬ 
doned.  The  first  and  greatest  duty  of  the  church 
is  to  conserve  its  childhood.  One  day,  according 
to  official  program,  Queen  Victoria  made  a  visit 
to  one  of  the  larger  provincial  cities  of  England 
on  an  important  public  function.  Among  other 
impressive  means  of  showing  their  appreciation 
of  the  great  queen,  the  city  had  organized  and 
trained  a  wonderful  choir  of  four  thousand  boys 
and  girls.  They  sang  the  welcome  of  the  city 
with  most  impressive  harmony,  and  the  whole 
occasion  was  long  to  be  remembered.  The  next 
morning  when  Victoria  was  back  in  her  palace 
she  sent  a  message  to  the  mayor  of  the  city.  It 
had  no  reference  to  any  of  the  many  civic  for¬ 
malities  and  honors  that  were  shown  her.  It 
went  out,  rather,  as  a  message  straight  from  the 
nation’s  great  mother  heart :  “The  Queen  wishes 
to  know,  did  the  children  all  get  home  safely?” 
I  know  of  few  things,  of  all  the  many  impressive 
things  the  great  English  queen  ever  did,  that 
made  her  mean  more  to  me  than  that.  Are  the 
children  safe?  The  nation  cannot  ask  a  more 
important  question.  The  church  cannot  help 
answer  a  more  vital  appeal.  Xever  was  a 
greater  challenge  made  to  those  who  were  to  try 
to  do  the  work  of  God  on  earth  than  when  Jesus 


THE  CHURCH  AND  CHILDHOOD  185 


took  a  little  cliild  and  set  him  in  their  midst.  If 
the  strong  and  talented  men  and  women  of  the 
church  would  but  face  that  challenge  as  the 
appeal  the  Sunday  school  has,  and  bring  them¬ 
selves  there  to  help  us  answer  the  challenge,  wre 
would  find  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  the  most 
constructive  revival  the  church  has  ever  known. 

It  is  an  overwhelming  testimony  when  we  find, 
after  careful  analysis,  that  eighty-two  per  cent 
of  the  church  membership  to-day  came  in 
through  the  doors  of  our  Sunday  schools.  That 
should  put  enthusiasm  into  the  heart  of  every 
worker  there.  There  is,  however,  attendant 
blame,  and  severe  charge  to  lay  against  us,  when 
we  find  more,  that  only  a  scant  fifteen  per  cent 
of  the  pupils  of  our  Sunday  schools  ever  unite 
with  the  church.  Eighty-two  per  cent  of  what 
wre  now  have  came  from  but  fifteen  per  cent  of 
the  schools  where  the  children  were  within  our 
reach.  If  we  will  save  the  loss  of  that  eighty- 
five  per  cent  of  our  Sunday  schools,  we  would 
increase  our  churches  four  hundred  and  sixty- 
seven  per  cent — an  increase  quite  within  reason. 
The  care  we  are  now  taking  of  the  great  problem 
of  human  construction  is  no  more  ultimately 
hopeful  than  the  tactics  of  the  good  Samaritan 
as  a  policy  to  eliminate  the  danger  on  the  Jeri¬ 
cho  road.  I  do  not  fail  to  appreciate  the  fine 
ministry  and  pity  and  benevolent  service  of  the 
Samaritan.  I  favor  every  bit  of  it  too.  But  it 


186 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


is  not  constructive.  In  fact,  it  is  an  enabling 
policy.  If  nothing  more  be  done  than  the  rescue 
and  care  for  victims,  no  matter  how  tenderly  it 
be  done,  it  would  but  clear  the  road  of  fatal 
evidence  of  robbery  and  cruelty,  and  make  the 
continued  work  of  the  robbers  more  easy.  I 
would  not  minimize  in  the  least  the  fine  work 
being  done  by  our  public  schools.  May  God  bless 
our  great  free  schools.  But  our  radical  swing 
to  unlicensed  liberty  has  hushed  the  voice  of  the 
majority  in  our  republic  as  to  religion.  The 
minority  sit  regnant,  and  boastfully  so,  in  the 
fact  that  we  dare  not  in  the  schools  we  have 
founded  and  support  lift  our  voices  in  religion. 
Hence  we  turn  to  the  church  in  its  own  direct 
activity  for  response.  When  we  enter  this  realm 
of  training  in  the  moral  and  religious  fiber  of 
life,  we  are  confronted  with  the  fact  that  we  are 
doing  what  we  alone  can  do  in  a  sadly  imperfect 
way.  The  criticism  attendant  upon  such  a  fact 
must  not  be  put  upon  those  who  are  doing  what 
we  are  doing.  They  do  not  claim  they  are  doing 
what  should  be  done.  They  are  only  doing  the 
best  they  can.  The  great  company  of  strong 
men  and  women  of  our  churches  who  have  never 
felt  the  first  sense  of  obligation  upon  them  for 
this  work,  must  accept  a  great  share  of  the  blame. 
The  very  most  important  matter  before  us  all 
just  now  is  the  fixing  of  the  great  principles  of 
righteousness  and  religion  in  these  forming 


THE  CHURCH  AND  CHILDHOOD  187 


characters  of  our  children.  I  wish  somehow  the 
great  values  involved  could  be  disclosed  to  all 
our  appreciation.  If  we  but  knew  the  truth  that 
is  now  within  impressive  reach  of  our  religious 
interest,  we  doubtless  would  bestir  ourselves. 
Old  John  Trebonious  always  appeared  before  the 
boys  in  his  class  with  uncovered  head.  He  kept 
within  himself  as  their  teacher  an  evident  sense 
of  awe.  It  was  impressive,  for  he  stood  as  in 
the  presence  of  to-morrow  when  to-morrow  was 
impressionable.  He  used  to  say :  “Who  can  tell 
wrhat  may  yet  rise  up  among  these  youths? 
There  may  be  among  them  those  who  shall  be¬ 
come  learned  doctors,  sage  legislators,  nay, 
princes  of  the  empire.”  And  even  as  he  spoke 
thus,  there  sat  before  him  in  that  little  class 
that  then  unnoticed  boy  who  was  to  become  a 
character  to  shake  the  world,  for  John  Trebo¬ 
nious  was  even  then  teaching  Martin  Luther. 
There  would  be  great  reverence  of  conduct  if  we 
could  but  see  what  is  before  us  in  the  childhood 
we  have  been  intrusted  to  impress.  Instead  of 
our  being  anxious  that  they  should  show  us 
honor  as  their  seniors,  we  would  stand  in  awe 
before  those  upon  whom  a  greater  to-morrow 
shall  rest.  If  we  could  but  behold  as  now  ac¬ 
complished  the  wreck  and  havoc  some  of  the 
boys  and  girls  will  make  of  life  to-morrow  be¬ 
cause  we  have  not  been  true  to  the  opportune 
hour  we  were  risked  with  before  them,  there 


188 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


might  now  be  stirred  in  some  of  you  a  passionate 

endeavor  to  secure  yourselves  against  the  caustic 

blame  a  failing  to-morrow  will  launch  against 

vou  if  vou  fail. 

«/  %> 

There  was  a  most  bitter  indictment  of  society 
hurled  from  the  sharp  pen  of  a  young  fifteen- 
year-old  girl  from  out  one  of  the  prison  places  of 
our  own  State  not  long  since.  Her  letter  wras 
broadcasted  over  this  country  through  our 
papers  and  made  us  all  cringe  as  we  read  it. 
This  keen  and  convicting  charge  was  in  the 
epistle :  “You  have  made  me  what  I  am.  I  have 
learned  evil  in  your  Juvenile  Detention  Home. 
I  learned  more  with  worse  girls  in  the  House  of 
the  Good  Shepherd.  The  Girls’  Reform  School 
taught  me  new  evils,  and  then  the  Canfield  Ave¬ 
nue  Station,  where  I  was  penned  with  a  nest  of 
dope  fiends,  taught  me  the  dope  habit.  You  have 
made  me  what  I  am.”  Such  an  indictment  our 
city  and  system  sits  before.  There  is  an  intelli¬ 
gence  and  an  energy  and  a  real  personality  in 
that  young  accuser.  Had  those  elements  but 
have  been  won  and  directed  into  use  instead  of 
sin,  she  would  doubtless  have  been  a  useful  and 
constructive  force  for  righteousness.  One  of 
our  newspapers  made  the  accusation  of  the  girl 
the  basis  of  an  editorial  to  say  that  the  “Deten¬ 
tion  Home,  the  Institution  for  Wayward  Girls, 
the  County  jail,  and  the  State  prison  were  with¬ 
out  any  dispute  the  greatest  institutions  we  have 


THE  CHURCH  AND  CHILDHOOD  189 


for  the  making  of  confirmed  criminals,  more 
effective  even  than  our  streets.  We  do  not  solve 
the  problem,  we  are  merely  stating  it.”  I  am  not 
now  to  argue  the  matter  thus  stated  bv  our 
editor,  but  I  do  want  to  emphasize  the  conclusion 
which  he  brought  after  a  lengthy  editorial  in 
the  tone  of  the  paragraph  I  quoted.  He  con¬ 
cluded  with  this  word,  “The  boys  and  girls  of 
this  communitv  must  be  saved  before  thev  get 

t/  t  o 

to  those  institutions.” 

A  few  years  ago  in  the  city  where  I  then 
resided  occurred  one  of  the  most  shocking 
crimes  it  has  ever  been  mine  to  be  a  close  observer 
of.  Two  young  lads,  after  a  most  spectacular 
robbery,  killed  a  citizen  and  a  policeman,  and 
made  their  escape,  only  to  be  captured  later,  and 
brought  to  most  tragic  conviction.  They  were 
sent  to  the  state  prison,  one  for  life,  which  was 
a  short  sentence,  for  he  died  soon,  and  the  other 
for  a  long  term  of  years.  The  lad  who  lived 
into  his  sentence  was  a  remarkable  bov,  and  was 
reached  by  one  of  my  close  friends  in  religious 
interest  and  became  an  interesting  correspond¬ 
ent  of  his.  I  want  to  quote  you  a  portion  of  a 
letter  he  wrote  one  day,  and  which  letter  I  have 
always  counted  as  among  the  most  remarkable 
letters  I  have  ever  read.  After  a  fine  word  of 
personal  appreciation  for  my  friend’s  interest  in 
him  he  said : 

“Reflection  in  the  quiet  of  my  cell  here  forces 


190 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


out  into  relief  the  revelation  of  how  unnatural 
to  a  human  being  imprisonment  really  is.  From 
a  state  of  seeming  indifference  to  my  crime, 
which  the  several  journals  attributed  to  me  after 
my  arrest,  I  have  come  through  a  change,  till 
now  the  gravity  of  my  position  stands  revealed  in 
all  its  frightful  nakedness.  At  times  the  knowl¬ 
edge  of  my  circumstances  and  position  are  op¬ 
pressive.  The  fact  is,  that  while  in  school,  which 
by  the  way  was  conducted  excellently,  it  did  not 
enable  me  to  grasp  more  than  a  mere  superficial 
knowledge  of  the  important  part  I,  even  as  a 
boy  in  school,  held  in  the  community.  It  is  true 
I  was  not  considered  backward  nor  mentally 
deficient.  Furthermore,  I  had  been  but  recently 
confirmed  in  the  church.  Still  bearing  all  this 
in  mind,  when  the  crisis  came,  the  instruction  I 
had  received  was  not  rooted  deep  enough  to  sway 
and  direct  my  actions  in  a  laudable  course.  I  do 
not  cite  this  as  an  indictment  of  anyone,  but  the 
cold,  hard  facts  stand  out  that  the  education 
gained  on  the  streets,  such  as  it  is,  glitters  and 
attracts,  while  that  of  the  school  and  church 
hold  no  lure  for  a  boy.  But  now  from  this  van¬ 
tage  point  of  observation  I  realize  and  appreciate 
the  beauty  which  lies  within  the  bosom  of  the 
church,  the  public  school,  and,  not  last  nor  least, 
my  Christian  home.  The  serious  proposition 
that  life  is,  is  now  correctly  assessed ;  the  tuition 
came  high,  but  has  been  used  to  an  advantage, 


THE  CHURCH  AND  CHILDHOOD  191 


and  whenever  the  opportunity  comes  to  me  to 
prove  myself,  I  can  say  in  all  sincerity  I  shall 
not  be  found  wanting.” 

Ever  since  that  letter  came  into  my  hands  it 
has  been  influencing  my  enthusiasm  for  the 
attractive  work  the  church  can  do  on  childhood. 
He  makes  a  cutting  statement  in  the  declaration 
that  we  leave  the  glitter  and  lure  out  of  our 
religious  endeavor.  What  right  have  we  to  make 
righteousness  labor  thus  under  handicap?  What 
right  has  the  street  to  a  glitter  and  attraction 
in  its  prosecution  of  evil  ideals,  while  we  in  the 
name  of  God,  seeking  to  touch  the  eternal  and 
moral  elements  of  the  boys  and  girls,  shall  permit 
an  easy  failure  for  the  dull  reason  we  did  not 
lure  childhood  in  the  way. 

I  remember  a  splendid  layman  we  had  some 
years  ago  in  Kansas  City.  He  was  one  of  the 
most  determined  workers  for  childhood  I  have 
ever  known.  We  called  him  “Fiddling  Reed,” 
because  he  was  bound  to  make  his  Sunday  school- 
just  as  attractive  in  music  as  evil  could  make 
any  hall  to  invite  them  into.  He  used  to  conduct 
a  mission  Sunday  school  in  one  of  the  congested 
and  neglected  sections  of  the  city.  He  had  a 
successful  school,  which  was  run  as  a  branch 
school  of  the  large  one  of  which  he  had  long  been 
superintendent.  One  Sunday  afternoon  when  he 
appeared  for  the  service  there  was  a  character¬ 
istic  German  band  playing  catchy,  rollicking 


192 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


tunes  in  the  street,  in  front  of  the  chapel,  and 
every  one  of  the  scholars  of  the  Sunday  school  was 
in  the  interested  crowd.  The  band  marched  away 
playing  a  sprightly  march,  and  every  scholar 
of  that  school  followed  down  to  a  near-by  beer 
garden.  Reed  stood  on  the  deserted  doorstep  of 
his  chapel  and  said,  “I  will  beat  the  devil  at  that 
game  if  it  takes  every  band  in  Kansas  City.” 
The  following  Sunday  he  was  there  with  the 
very  best  band  he  could  get.  They  had  the 
crowd.  He  took  them  all  into  his  chapel,  and 
with  the  band  to  lead  they  sang  hymns  as  they 
had  never  been  sung  about  there  before.  He 
stayed  by  that  job  too,  and  many  a  little  street 
urchin  started  from  there  for  manhood  and  God. 
The  devil  has  no  right  to  the  monopoly  of  the 
glitter  and  attraction  he  so  frequently  uses  in 
his  work. 

The  church  is  charged  with  the  responsibility 
of  the  most  precious  possession  in  the  world. 
If  we  had  all  the  diamonds  and  jewels  on  one 
beam  of  a  scale  to  weigh  against  the  soul  of  one 
lad,  he  would  outweigh  them  all.  That  is  what 
this  Bible  says  in  not  obscure  words.  I  slept 
one  long  night  with  ten  thousand  dollars  in 
cash  in  bed  with  me.  I  would  not  say  I  slept.  I 
remained  in  bed.  It  was  the  worst  bed- fellow  I 
ever  had.  My  chief  concern  was  in  the  hope  that 
no  one  knew  I  had  it.  I  spent  the  whole  night 
making  sure  it  was  still  in  the  bed,  and  when 


THE  CHURCH  AND  CHILDHOOD  193 


morning  came  I  got  it  to  its  owner  as  quickly  as 
possible.  If  we  tremble  in  fear  over  a  few  thou¬ 
sand  dollars,  how  shall  we  dare  go  up  to  our 
heavenly  Father,  and  the  lad  be  not  with  us,  as 
it  is  forcefully  asked  in  the  Word?  Our  trouble 
is  that  we  do  not  appreciate  where  the  real 
values  of  this  world  repose.  There  came  into  my 
hands  recently  a  remarkable  report  of  the  Chil¬ 
dren’s  Home,  of  Cincinnati.  It  was  titled  “Is  It 
Well  With  the  Child?’’  That  society  for  over 
fifty  years  has  been  caring  for  homeless  children, 
and  by  strictly  sanitary  and  distinctly  Christian 
environment  has  endeavored  to  save  them  to 
society.  They  keep  a  careful  record  of  all  the 
cases  they  have  reared.  One  after  another  those 
little  waifs,  picked  up,  deserted  on  doorsteps 
and  in  public  places,  have  been  carefully  built 
into  noble  lives.  The  general  counsel  of  one  of 
the  largest  railway  systems  in  America  was  one 
of  their  boys.  The  general  freight  agent  of 
another  of  the  largest  roads  was  another.  They 
have  kept  a  careful  record  of  five  hundred  of  the 
earlier  cases  of  the  home  who  have  gone  out  into 
the  world  and  have  now  had  a  fair  chance  to 
succeed  or  fail.  Four  hundred  and  eightv-four 
of  the  five  hundred,  or  ninety-six  and  eight- 
tenths  per  cent,  have  turned  out  well.  That  is 
enough  to  furnish  keen  interest  to  the  compara¬ 
tive  student  in  heredity  and  environment.  Some 
one  in  comment  on  these  remarkable  results 


194 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


wrote:  “I  believe  in  the  blood  of  ancestry;  but 
there  is  also  a  blood  of  kindness,  a  blood  of  loving 
interest,  a  blood  of  unselfish  sacrifice;  and  these 
effectual  bloods  will  tell  an  inspiring  story  one 
day  of  lives  purified  and  purposes  strengthened.” 
Surely,  the  Church  of  Christ  will  not  fail  to  see 
the  great  challenge  its  Sunday  school  presents 
it  with.  It  is  time  we  were  concentrating  our 
greatest  interest  and  expending  our  most  pas¬ 
sionate  endeavor  on  the  children.  Our  people 
are  busy  building  houses  for  flood  and  fire  to 
destroy;  they  are  absorbed  in  piling  up  fortunes 
which  will  soon  be  scattered  by  the  greed  and 
scramble  of  those  who  oft  impatiently  await 
their  death;  why  not  catch  the  unmeasured  op¬ 
portunity  offered  in  the  multitude  of  children 
all  about  us,  and  put  genuine  impress  of  holy 
interest  there  by  the  help  of  God,  that  neither 
flood  nor  fire  can  harm,  and  that  cannot  be  dis¬ 
sipated  by  greed  nor  wasted  by  carelessness? 

“You  may  be  Christ  or  Shakespeare,  little  child! 

A  Saviour  or  a  sun  to  the  lost  world. 

There  is  no  babe  born  but  may  carry  furled 
Strength  to  make  bloom  the  world’s  disastrous  wild. 

•  •••••••• 

“Oh  what  then,  must  our  labor  be  to  mold  you  ? 

To  open  the  heart,  to  build  with  dream  the  brain. 

To  strengthen  the  young  soul  in  toil  and  pain, 

Till  our  age-aching  hands  no  longer  hold  you. 


THE  CHUECH  AND  CHILDHOOD  195 


“Vision  far  dreamed!  But  soft!  If  your  last  goal 
Be  low;  if  you  are  only  common  clay. 

What  then?  Toil  lost?  Were  our  toil  trebled,  nay! 
You  are  a  soul,  you  are  a  human  soul! 

A  greater  than  the  skies  ten-trillion  starred, 
Shakespeare  no  greater,  O  you  slip  of  God.” 

How  shall  any  of  us  ever  fail  to  appreciate 
that?  If  there  is  a  hope  for  our  day ;  if  there  is 
not  to  come  an  ultimate  wreck  of  public  morals ; 
if  barbarian  lawlessness  shall  be  restrained  from 
the  destruction  of  our  constitution ;  if  the  oncom¬ 
ing  hosts  of  life  we  see  but  dimly  now  in  the 
dawn  of  childhood,  are  to  be  defended  from  the 
debauchery  of  evil;  if  sin,  clothed  in  the  most 
attractive  books  and  ballads  and  pictures,  is  to 
be  overcome  in  its  campaign  for  our  day;  and 
if  our  Christian  faith  is  ever  to  prevail  among 
men,  then  many,  many  of  us  there  must  be  who 
must  make  it  our  accepted  prime  duty  to  arise 
from  our  lounges  of  refined,  self-satisfied,  and 
fashionable  religion,  and  gird  ourselves  care¬ 
fully  for  some  very  hard  and  painstaking  work. 
The  means  are  at  hand.  The  existing  mechan¬ 
ism  of  our  organization  now  ready,  can  carry  a 
true  religious  influence  throughout  every  exist¬ 
ent  branch  of  life.  What  we  now  await  is  a  con¬ 
certed,  consecrated,  zealous  application  of  the 
strength  now  latent  in  our  laity  to  set  the  current 
in  motion.  The  effectual  religious  education 
of  childhood  is  the  open  door  to  a  regenerated 


196 


THE  EXPECTED  CHUKCH 


society.  All  the  strenuous  endeavors  we  make 
on  adult  conditions  are  handicapped.  It  is  like 
writing  on  granite  or  twining  the  gnarled  stiff 
boughs  of  an  old  tree.  We  are  battling  with 
the  handicap  of  a  self-satisfied  age  to-day. 
Our  great  wealth  has  engendered  a  taste  for 
luxury  that  soothes  us  to  slumber  in  the  midst  of 
danger.  This  tends  ever  to  weaken  the  princi¬ 
ples  of  holiness,  and  our  children  have  grown  up 
in  conformity  to  the  world,  and  the  problem 
with  all  its  heartaches  bursts  upon  us.  Cities, 
towns,  and  frontier  all  present  their  own  dis¬ 
tinctive  evils ;  and  the  total  impress  of  Christian 
doctrine,  we  are  told,  is  only  slight.  This  would 
be  a  national  fact,  and  carry  the  hope  of  such  a 
limitation,  if  our  country  to-day  were  comprised 
only  of  the  children  of  the  more  choice  original 
stock.  But  to  all  that  must  now  be  added  a 
new  ingredient  caused  by  the  accession  of  many 
millions  of  men  and  women  and  children  wTho 
have  come  from  various  and  vastly  different 
nations.  Often  they  are  not  only  unchristian, 
but  infidels,  wThose  unbelief  has  been  generated 
under  false  church  domination.  Often  they  are 
popish  in  their  origin,  and  in  many  cases  much 
less  inclined  to  pure  Christianity  than  the  whole 
body  of  the  citizenship  to  which  they  come.  We 
are  not,  therefore,  surprised  to  hear  often  a  note 
of  pessimism  for  the  future,  and  a  contention 
that  the  moral  tone  of  society  as  a  whole  is  suf- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  CHILDHOOD  197 


fering  a  severe  depression.  Such  testimony  is 
listed  from  our  police  courts  and  our  prison 
rolls,  our  journals  and  our  immoral  amusements, 
our  popular  violence  and  our  bold  intemperance 
in  life.  It  is  indeed  a  most  serious  question  for 
the  Christian  patriot,  and  one  that  he  dares  not 
be  careless  of,  the  solution  of  which  he  must 
most  truly  throw  himself  zealously  into  when¬ 
ever  the  proper  course  of  combat  is  made  clear. 
The  fact  is  a  great  challenge  to  every  man  and 
woman  who  believes  in  God  and  professes  his 
name,  to  bring  every  influence  they  can  com¬ 
mand  and  invest  it  for  this  work.  We  need  you 
in  the  Sunday  school.  Every  church  should  be 
equipped  with  the  impressive  presence  of  large 
numbers  of  men  and  women  in  classes  of  interest, 
if  for  no  other  reason,  for  the  one  great  fact  that 
their  presence  is  impressive  of  the  genuine  worth 
of  the  work  upon  children.  Give  us  a  great  com¬ 
pany  of  interested  men  in  every  school,  and  we 
will  have  a  firm  grip  on  the  boy  problem  of  that 
community.  The  glaring  absence  of  manhood 
has  long  been  a  handicap  some  communities 
have  had  to  struggle  against  in  their  religious 
endeavor  for  boys.  Mark  you  well  that,  after 
all  is  said  and  done  for  the  finest  system  of  edu¬ 
cational  methods  and  organization  in  our  Sun¬ 
day  schools,  the  one  chief  virtue  of  the  school 
is  not  in  the  information  imparted  to  the  scholar 
but  in  the  religious  and  moral  deposit  made  in 


198 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


the  child  life.  Men  and  women  who  are  per¬ 
sistently  careless  of  the  great  endeavors  of 
religious  training  must  take  the  blame  that 
accrues. 

There  used  to  be  about  a  little  story  that  made 
impression  of  interest  on  me  as  a  boy.  A  preacher 
was  visiting  a  little  school  in  a  wretched  part  of 
a  great  city  one  day,  and  being  requested  to  say 
a  word  to  the  children,  he  began  by  asking  a 
question,  “How  many  bad  boys  does  it  take  to 
make  one  good  one?”  A  bright  little  fellow  from 
the  streets,  who  had  been  reared — what  little 
rearing  he  had  received — entirely  on  kicks  and 
cuffs  and  curses  of  the  street,  answered  with 
quick  confidence,  “One,  sir,  if  you  treat  him 
right.”  That  same  lad  at  a  later  day  became  one 
of  the  most  efficient  teachers  in  that  school. 
Would  God  the  fine  Christian  philosophy  of  that 
simple  little  story  would  seize  all  our  lives,  and 
become  the  basis  of  faithful  passionate  service 
by  our  obligated  men  and  women  of  talent  andi 
ability.  What  you  do  for  a  child  may  move  the 
whole  world,  for,  like  old  John  Trebonious,  you 
may  be  doing  it  for  another  Luther.  It  seems  to 
me  that  church  history  is  about  ripe  for  another 
giant.  Conditions  call  for  one.  You  might  be 
the  discoverer. 

Recently  from  an  unoccupied  field  in  India 
there  came  to  one  of  our  missionaries  an  appeal, 
requesting  that  he  come  to  the  village  and  conse- 


THE  CHURCH  AND  CHILDHOOD  199 


crate  in  baptism  and  take  into  church  fellowship 
a  class  of  seventy  men  and  women.  When  the 
services  began  the  missionary  noticed  a  young 
lad,  not  yet  fifteen  years  of  age,  sitting  in  a  back 
corner  of  the  room  looking  anxiously  and  listen¬ 
ing  intently  to  the  service.  After  due  examina¬ 
tion,  the  class  proving  to  be  unusually  wrell  pre¬ 
pared  for  the  sacrament,  were  baptized  and 
received  into  the  fellowship  of  the  church.  Then 
the  watchful  lad  approached  timidly,  and  re¬ 
quested  like  treatment.  “Do  you  too  desire  to 
come  into  the  Christian  Church?”  asked  the  in¬ 
terested  missionary. 

“Yes  sir,”  was  the  plain  answer. 

“But  you  are  quite  young,  my  boy,  for  a  con¬ 
vert  to  come  from  the  field  of  heathenism,”  an¬ 
swered  the  missionary.  “If  I  were  to  receive  you 
at  once  into  the  fellowship  of  the  church,  and 
then  you  were  to  fall  away,  it  would  bring  dis¬ 
credit  upon  the  church,  and  do  a  great  injury  to 
the  cause  of  Christ.  I  will  be  coming  this  way 
again  in  about  six  months,  and  if  you  will  begin 
to-day  and  be  very  loyal  to  Jesus  Christ  during 
that  time,  when  I  come  then  I  will  gladly  baptize 
you,  and  receive  you  into  the  church.” 

No  sooner  were  these  words  uttered  than  the 
people  arose  to  their  feet  in  protest.  Some  speak¬ 
ing  for  all  the  others  said :  “Why,  sir,  it  is  he  who 
has  taught  us  everything  we  know  about  Jesus. 
We  are  the  harvest  of  this  lad’s  life  and  teaching.” 


200 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


So  it  proved  to  be.  That  boy  was  the  minister 
of  that  spontaneous  church,  the  honored  instru¬ 
ment  of  God  for  saving  all  that  company  to 
Christianity,  and  for  planting  firmly  the  gospel 
of  the  blessed  God  in  that  village. 

“A  little  child  walked  by  my  side. 

I  had  lost  faith  in  God  and  man. 

He  prattled  of  his  joys  and  hopes. 

As  only  little  children  can. 

I  did  not  try  to  blast  his  hopes, 

I  did  not  tell  him  of  my  pain, 

But  somehow  when  our  walk  was  done. 

My  shattered  faith  was  whole  again.” 


XII 


CAM  THE  CHURCH  SAVE  THE  WORLD? 

“Go  ye  therefore,  and  teach  all  nations,  baptizing 
them  in  the  name  of  the  Father,  and  of  the  Son,  and  of 
the  Holy  Ghost:  teaching  them  to  observe  all  things, 
whatsoever  I  have  commanded  you:  and,  lo,  I  am  with 
you  alway,  even  unto  the  end  of  the  world.” — Matthew 
28.  19,  20. 

The  actual  task  to  which  Christianity  has 
been  set  will,  when  honestly  faced,  either  drive 
discouragement  into  the  heart,  or  compel  a  pro¬ 
found  faith  in  God.  This  fact  accounts  for  the 
extremes  of  religious  manifestations  attendant 
upon  periods  of  great  difficulty  in  the  world’s 
life.  Folks  are  either  driven  to  God  for  help  in 
a  condition  the}r  are  not  willing  to  surrender, 
but  know  is  far  beyond  their  own  strength,  or 
they  abandon  it  in  hopeless  discouragement. 
The  question  I  choose  now  to  discuss  has  been 
on  the  lips  of  many  these  late  days,  as  they 
have  endeavored  to  make  hard  way  through 
experiences  no  one  can  tolerate,  and  yet  no  one 
seems  able  to  deliver  from.  Individuals  have 
asked  it,  nations  are  asking  it,  society  is  asking 
it — Can  the  church  with  the  old  faith  save  the 
world?  Steadfast  gazing  at  such  a  world  as  we 

201 


202 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


find  ourselves  in  now  is  quite  enough  to  drive 
weak  hearts  to  despair,  and  just  what  we  mean 
by  “weak”  may  need  some  careful  measurements. 
War,  desolation,  sorrow,  madness,  suffering, 
poverty,  starvation,  pestilence,  anarchy — all 
these  many  things,  familiar  on  our  news  col¬ 
umns,  are  not  the  types  of  destroyers  we  expect 
to  prey  upon  what  we  call  weak  hearts.  These 
things  bring  heavy  feet  to  trample  strong  hearts 
with.  We  need  not  wonder  if  the  call  for  help 
has  come  from  places  where  men  have  thought 
heretofore  great  confidence  dwelt.  Can  there 
be  any  deliverance?  Men’s  ears  are  keen  to¬ 
day  for  every  actual  offer.  “Who  can  deliver 
us  from  the  body  of  this  death?”  Can  the  church 
save  the  world?  Are  these  forces  of  religion 
rugged  enough  and  powerful  enough  to  lift  an¬ 
cient  empires  out  of  their  desolation,  and  carve 
out  effectual  routes  for  reformation?  We  have 
grown  used  to  the  great  smashing  might  of  TNT. 
Can  we  safely  place  our  hope  in  a  gentle  gospel? 
Have  we  any  right  to  solicit  men  and  women  to 
make  sacrifice  to  help  us  build  churches  in  which 
to  stand  and  preach  the  gospel,  when  there  is 
great,  gaunt  hunger  in  the  world,  when  desola¬ 
tion  is  spread  over  a  continent,  when  unemploy¬ 
ment  is  forcing  its  hardship  upon  millions,  when 
many  mills  are  idle,  and  when  accumulated  debts 
are  crushing  the  hearts  of  people  and  nations? 
If  we  are  to  retrench  in  our  financial  situation, 


CAN  CHURCH  SAVE  WORLD?  203 


and  reduce  our  expenses  to  the  last  dollar  of 
economical  wisdom,  why  not  begin  with  the 
church  and  let  it  languish  until  wre  have  the 
prosperous  times  we  all  hope  for  some  day?  Is 
Christianity  a  luxury  or  a  fundamental  neces- 
sity? 

Dean  Inge,  of  Saint  Paul’s  Cathedral,  in 
London,  has  been  called  the  “gloomy  Dean.”  He 
preaches  much  in  dark  terms.  He  faces  the 
difficult  with  full  sense  of  its  difficulty  rather 
than  with  the  compulsory  optimism  of  a  faith  in 
omnipotence.  He  is  a  keen  thinker,  and  in 
every  way  an  outstanding  character  in  the 
strength  of  the  English  church.  In  one  of  his 
recent  addresses  he  contends  that  we  have  been 
in  these  late  years  passing  through  a  degenera¬ 
tion  which  has  come  from  the  fact  that  the  twen¬ 
tieth  century  has  come,  as  an  heir,  into  a  great 
fortune  which  the  nineteenth  century  laid  up  by 
hard  work.  It  is  difficult  to  merely  inherit  a 
fortune  safely.  Those  who  do  not  pay  the  price 
of  value  in  possessing  it,  have  no  sense  of  value 
in  administering  it.  This  great,  rich  century  of 
ours  found  itself  rich  when  it  came,  and  in¬ 
herited  with  its  riches  all  the  dangers  of  the 
easy  abuse  of  them.  Now,  after  a  deluge  of  deso¬ 
lation  and  expenditure,  this  so-called  New  Cen¬ 
tury,  which  has  just  turned  its  maturity  and 
stands  of  age,  having  in  its  childhood  and  adoles¬ 
cence  swept  the  full  gamut  of  experience  already, 


204 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


finds  itself  in  debt  and  in  difficulty,  the  like  of 
which  no  other  age  has  ever  known.  The  great 
nations  that  only  yesterday  held  almost  all  the 
riches  of  the  world  are  now  crushed  under  an 
indebtedness  no  financier  can  fathom.  Of  this 
much  I  am  sure,  we  are  now  as  a  world  where  we 
can  grasp,  and  we  are  beginning  to  grasp,  some¬ 
what  of  the  meaning  of  the  great  task  which  has 
been  laid  on  the  shoulders  of  the  institution  that 
dares  set  itself  to  the  ideal  of  making  out  of  this 
world  a  place  where  men  and  women,  such  as 
we  are,  can  actually  live  in  a  manner  that  be- 
cometh  our  claim  of  brotherhood  under  our  com¬ 
mon  fatherhood.  The  saving  of  this  world  from 
sin  is  no  mere  recreation ;  no  task  to  be  assumed 
on  spare-time  impulse.  It  is  no  work  that  can  be 
done  by  legislation,  no  matter  how  well  that 
legislation  be  drawn. 

I  was  engaged  once  in  delivering  a  series  of 
religious  addresses  in  a  public  hall.  One  even¬ 
ing  I  was  waited  upon  by  a  committee  that  had 
been  sent  from  some  socialist  society  in  the  city 
asking  me  to  bring  my  congregation  and  abandon 
my  meeting,  and  let  the  people  hear  a  real  mes¬ 
sage,  and,  to  quote  their  closing  words,  “We  will 
show  you  how  to  do  at  once  what  Christianity 
has  been  unable  to  do  in  two  thousand  years.’’ 
I  did  not  adjourn  my  meeting,  and  it  has  been 
several  years  since  the  challenge,  and  I  have 
seen  but  little  change.  The  man  who  sets  him- 


CAN  CHURCH  SAVE  WORLD?  205 


self  to  cure  the  ills  of  this  sin-struck  world  with 
a  scheme  which  depends  on  the  laws  and  insti¬ 
tutions  of  men,  has  missed  his  way.  Laws  and 
institutions  take  their  tone  and  temper  from 
the  men  who  make  them.  He  who  would  right 
this  world  must  first  be  equipped  to  right  the 
sinful  lives  of  men.  You  can  conceive  ideal 
institutions  and  laws,  and  construct  complete 
new  conditions  of  living,  but  when  you  put  into 
those  ideal  conditions  unideal  men,  the  institu¬ 
tions  will  be  shattered.  Some  one  has  said,  “If 
you  put  a  pig  in  a  parlor,  I  know  which  will 
change  first.”  It  is  little  trouble  if  you  are 
possessed  of  a  fertile  brain,  to  shut  yourself  in 
your  study  and  dream  out  a  complete  new  world. 
Some  Bellamy  or  Plato,  or  any  other  Utopian 
dreamer,  can,  with  an  ideal  humanity  as  his 
basis,  construct  a  new  world  that  will  dazzle 
every  eye.  But  when  he  opens  his  door  and 
walks  out  upon  the  actual  pavements  of  the 
world  where  men  are  just  as  they  are,  rather 
than  as  he  drew  them  to  be,  his  plan  fails  be¬ 
cause  it  was  conceived  on  a  basis  which  does  not 
exist.  We  are  not  seeking  to  conceive  an  ideal 
set  of  institutions.  We  are  set  at  the  practical 
task  of  constructing  a  godly  humanity.  Men 
make  institutions.  Institutions  do  not  make 
men. 

When  as  a  Christian  man,  with  the  sense  of 
my  task  upon  me,  I  look  about  to  see  what  yet 


206 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


remains  to  be  done,  I  am  ashamed  of  our  record. 
But  when  I  compare  the  record  of  Christianity 
with  what  any  other  religion  or  philosophy  has 
done,  I  confess  to  a  comparative  satisfaction  at 
least.  The  nearer  you  think  you  have  come  to 
the  horizon  of  our  aims,  the  wider  you  will  dis¬ 
cover  our  prospects  to  be.  The  footprints  of 
God  are  evident  all  along  our  ideals  anyhow, 
even  if  in  our  own  actions  we  may  have  badly 
marred  their  evidence.  Old  Bishop  Colenso  drew 
down  the  world’s  window  blinds  and  bade  men 
solemnly  make  ready  the  obsequies  of  Christian¬ 
ity.  He  had  the  burial  service  ready.  But  what 
he  conceived  to  be  the  setting  sun  was  not  so  at 
all,  it  was,  rather,  the  dawn.  The  good  Bishop 
seems  to  have  been  reversed  in  his  observation. 
Some  one  said  of  Gilbert  Chesterton,  who  always 
argues  on  the  reverse  side  of  every  question,  that 
if  he  was  asked  to  describe  a  sunrise  he  would 
stand  on  his  head  and  describe  a  sunset.  I  in¬ 
cline  to  believe  Bishop  Colenso  mistook  all  the 
universe  and  its  signs  because  he  himself  needed 
readjustment.  His  wail  of  the  sunset  of  Chris¬ 
tianity  has  died  away  in  the  constant  increase 
of  Christian  institutions  about  the  earth.  Chris¬ 
tianity  has  come  on  down  the  oft-menacing  ages, 
and  found  everywhere  and  always  the  manifes¬ 
tation  of  her  divine  commission,  until,  as  some 
one  has  said,  “the  little  parochial  millennium 
of  the  Jews  has  now  become  the  universal  ex- 


CAN  CHURCH  SAVE  WORLD?  207 


pectation  of  the  race,  and  the  limited  personal 
salvation  of  the  individual  has  been  enlarged 
into  a  vast  design  extending  its  dominion  to 
every  faculty  and  interest  and  prospect  of  our 
many-sided  nature.”  There  does  not  seem  to  be 
about  us  here  now  the  atmosphere  of  a  finished 
career.  There  is  nothing  about  the  world  which 
seems  to  point  to  the  fact  that  it  is  breaking 
down  with  age,  nor  that  it  has  accomplished  its 
purpose.  I  have  not  seen  posted  the  notice  for 
the  meeting  of  the  creditors  of  a  bankrupt  uni¬ 
verse.  Everything  points  the  other  way.  We  are 
swept  with  a  perfect  marvel  of  new  ambitions. 
We  are  finding  every  day  the  evidences  of  new 
possibilities.  Our  brains  reel  at  the  mounting 
figures  of  the  riches  we  are  finding.  New  store¬ 
houses  of  power  are  being  put  within  our  reach. 
Never  was  mankind  so  very  outstanding  in 
vision  and  dream  and  passion  as  now.  And 
amid  this  great  awakening  comes  the  apprecia¬ 
tion  of  the  new  expectation  of  the  world  in  the 
church.  Once,  and  that  not  long  gone  either, 
the  attitude  of  Christianity  seemed  to  be  that 
of  endurance.  The  world  grew  used  to  the  atti¬ 
tude  of  a  religious  interpretation  which  had  its 
hope  fixed  only  upon  ultimate  escape.  Wrongs 
and  oppressions  and  every  evil  thing,  were  met 
with  that  quenchless  hope  that  one  great,  glad 
day  we  would  make  good  an  eternal  deliverance. 
The  new  attitude  of  Christianity  is  that  these 


208 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


things  were  not  meant  to  be  endured.  They  have 
no  rights  on  this  earth.  They  are  here  only  be¬ 
cause  of  presumption.  They  must  be  resisted 
and  overcome  and  driven  out.  Our  deliverance 
needs  not  await  an  escape  from  an  evil  world. 
This  world  can  be  made  a  good  world.  The  evil 
that  is  here  needs  not  be,  must  not  be,  shall  not 
be.  At  whatever  cost  it  must  be  changed.  What 
care  we  for  cost,  when  we  remember  that  the 
first  chapter  of  our  story  is  written  in  the  blood 
of  the  Son  of  God?  We  have  as  a  church  only 
written  our  real  history  as  we  have  gone  forth 
regardless  of  all  cost,  and  proceeded  to  make 
right  the  things  that  are  evil.  Our  real  churchly 
program  has  not  been  one  of  endurance  but  one 
of  aggressive  opposition  and  conquest.  The 
blood  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  was  not  poured 
out  upon  this  world  merely  to  make  here  and 
there  the  possibility  of  the  escape  of  some  few 
souls  to  righteousness.  This  is  a  redeemed  world, 
and  those  who  believe  that  are  challenged  to 
make  it  as  speedily  as  possible  a  saved  world. 
This  is  the  fact  compulsory  that  should  make 
enthusiasts  out  of  Christians  everywhere.  It 
should  consume  our  lives  with  passionate  devo¬ 
tion.  I  am  sure  it  will  do  so  whenever  the  actual 
truth  of  it  bursts  in  full  meaning  upon  the  soul. 
Its  objective  is  large  enough  to  command. 

A  few  years  ago  I  lived  in  the  northwest  part 
of  our  country  and  so  near  the  wilderness  of  the 


CAN  CHURCH  SAVE  WORLD?  209 


big  wood  that  the  news  of  a  lost  man  was  not 
rare,  though  it  never  lost  its  power  to  command 
enthusiastic  response.  Men  were  ready  to  take 
great  risk  in  search  of  a  lost  man.  But  the  idea 
of  a  lost  child  in  the  woods  almost  overwhelms 
one  who  realizes  how  dark  and  dense  and  dan¬ 
gerous  is  the  night  in  the  actual  wilds.  Little 
Beulah  Gonthorn,  only  two  and  one  half  years 
of  age,  wandered  away  from  the  door  of  her 
cabin  home,  and  was  swallowed  up  in  the  quiet 
of  the  forest.  The  stricken  mother,  after  hunt¬ 
ing  with  care  all  about  the  house,  and  in  the 
near-by  clearing,  became  frantic  with  fear  and 
went  calling  down  the  trails  into  the  woods, 
with  no  results.  Calling  loudly  for  help,  her 
voice  was  heard,  and  ere  evening  fell  with  early 
darkness  over  the  forest,  several  men  and  boys 
had  been  enlisted  in  the  search.  They  eagerly 
searched  the  woods  all  night  long.  Every  ear 
was  set  to  hear  the  pitiful  cries  of  a  frightened 
baby  in  the  darkness,  but  no  one  heard.  That 
was  Wednesday  night.  Thursday  and  Friday 
and  Saturday,  the  news  having  traveled  rapidly, 
every  man  and  boy  throughout  the  section  had 
tramped  and  listened  and  looked,  day  and  night, 
but  no  word  came  of  any  sign  of  the  lost  babe. 
All  the  stores  of  near  villages  were  closed,  and 
the  people  set  themselves  to  find  that  little  child. 
Sunday  afternoon  they  brought  some  blood¬ 
hounds.  Twice  they  followed  a  trail  to  an  old 


210 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


haystack  in  a  little  marsh  ravine,  but  both  times 
they  lost  the  scent  there.  The  searchers  concen¬ 
trated  in  that  vicinity,  and  literally  crawled 
over  every  foot  of  the  ground  about.  The  in¬ 
terest  was  intense.  Wednesday  and  Wednesday 
night;  Thursday  and  Thursday  night;  Friday 
and  Friday  night;  Saturday  and  Saturday 
night;  Sunday!  and  in  the  late  afternoon  in 
amazement  a  keen  eye  saw  under  a  pile  of  under¬ 
brush  that  little  baby  girl,  who  had  at  last  be¬ 
come  too  weak  to  attract  attention.  For  over 
four  days  and  nights,  exposed  to  the  wilds  that 
would  scare  most  any  adult  to  sit  alone  through, 
that  babe  had  kept  alive  by  eating  grass  and  the 
leaf -loam  of  the  forest  floor.  She  was  one  mass 
of  scratches  and  bruises.  Those  eager,  glad 
hunters  now  lifted  the  little  weak  body  in  their 
strong,  triumphant  arms  and  carried  her  home 
to  her  mother.  I  read  the  news  of  the  recovery 
while  on  a  flying  train.  It  was  wired  to  the 
world  from  Erskine,  Minnesota.  My  soul  was 
glad  to  read  it,  and  tears  of  thankfulness  were 
on  the  faces  of  all  the  people  as  we  heard  it. 
Thank  God!  Thank  God!  Thank  God!  I  have 
said  all  that  just  to  say  more  effectually  that  the 
passion  of  abandoned  endeavor  is  the  only  logi¬ 
cal  conduct  for  Christianity. 

I  saw  a  tiny  boy  lost  in  a  big  crowd  on  the 
streets  of  Chicago  one  day.  He  was  crying 
vigorously.  Men  were  shouting  at  each  other 


CAN  CHURCH  SAVE  WORLD?  211 


and  at  the  crowd.  Suddenly  a  man  came  plung¬ 
ing  through  the  crowd  and  grabbing  that  crying 
boy  to  his  breast  held  him  tight  while  he  re¬ 
covered  his  composure  a  bit.  I  was  so  glad  I  was 
standing  near  enough  to  hear  the  first  word  the 
little  fellow  said.  Just  as  soon  as  he  could  choke 
down  his  fear,  he  jerked  out  in  an  effort  at 
triumph,  “I  knew  all  the  time  you  would  find 
me.”  Thank  God  for  the  passion  of  men  when 
once  fired.  What  I  long  to  see  is  the  issue  of 
Christianity  made  so  convincing  to  men  that 
they  will  catch  the  call  of  passionate  devotion. 
We  must  confess  to  all  too  little  of  it  now.  So 
few  of  those  who  have  named  the  Name  seem  to 
really  catch  the  gleam  of  the  great  task.  To 
cleanse  this  world  from  sin !  What  audacity  for 
folks  such  as  are  we  to  attempt  it ! 

I  am  an  optimist  with  Jesus  Christ.  I  am  not 
afraid.  Defeat  is  not  a  haunt  to  me.  Jesus 
Christ  is  bound  for  the  citadel  of  humanitv. 

t/ 

The  task  of  our  Lord  is  the  world.  You  and  I 
are  vindicated  in  our  profession  of  him  only  as 
we  make  evident  a  positive  part  in  the  perform¬ 
ance  of  that  task.  Critics  who  are  so  eloquent 
in  explanation  of  the  failure  of  the  church  find 
all  the  significance  of  their  criticism  in  the  fact 
that  the  Christian  program  is  so  big  the  casual 
observer  fails  utterly  to  see  what  we  have  been 
able  thus  far  to  do,  because  of  the  vast  work 
remaining  to  be  done.  Wre  have  actually  come 


212 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


far,  let  us  not  lose  heart  that  we  have  yet  far  to 
go.  I  remember  the  first  time  I  crossed  the 
ocean.  Every  time  I  allowed  my  mind  to  think 
of  the  vast  waste  of  the  waters  about  and  before 
me,  all  the  progress  of  the  little  toiling  ship 
seemed  lost.  The  horizon  forever  seemed  the 
same.  The  ocean  was  ahead.  The  world  had 
been  left  behind.  All  standards  of  measurement 
I  had  come  to  reckon  distance  by  were  gone  from 
my  view.  I  could  not  feel  sure  we  were  making 
progress.  I  bent  over  the  side  of  the  ship  to 
watch  the  flying  spray,  but  when  I  looked  out 
everything  was  the  same.  I  was  not  sure  whether 
the  ship  or  the  ocean  moved.  The  captain  posted 
every  morning  the  tiny  mark  of  the  log  and  indi¬ 
cated  on  the  chart  where  we  were,  but  it  seemed 
a  huge  guess.  Every  night  the  sun  went  down 
in  the  same  place,  and  the  same  stars  came  out 
to  twinkle  through  the  rigging  just  where  I  had 
seen  them  before.  I  could  hear  the  engines.  I 
could  feel  the  throb  of  the  great  grinding  pro¬ 
pellers.  But  somehow  the  ocean  just  seemed  to 
swallow  all  sense  of  progress.  It  seemed  supreme 
audacity  when  the  captain  told  us  we  would  see 
land  at  such  an  hour.  I  had  had  to  change  my 
watch  so  much  I  had  lost  confidence  in  it  too. 

That  is  exactly  the  situation  before  the  man 
who  measures  the  work  of  the  Church  of  God 
on  earth  to-day.  The  vast  swreep  of  our  task 
reaches  so  far  beyond  what  we  have  done  as  to 


CAN  CHURCH  SAVE  WORLD?  213 


crush  into  insignificance  the  tiny  reports  we 
bring  when  we  make  bold  enough  to  arrange  our 
statistics.  We  read  the  log  of  our  progress,  and 
then  turn  our  faces  out  toward  the  way  yet  to 
go,  and  almost  lose  courage.  But  I  believe  in 
God,  and  he  posts  the  log  of  his  kingdom.  He 
has  given  us  definite  promises  which  bear  upon 
the  establishment  of  his  kingdom  on  this  earth. 
He  has  told  us  of  the  flowing  of  the  nations  to 
the  mountain  of  the  Lord’s  house;  of  the  day 
when  they  shall  not  hurt  nor  destroy  in  all  God’s 
holy  mountain;  of  the  time  when  the  earth  shall 
be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Lord  as  the  waters 
cover  the  sea. 

One  day  a  critical  and  doubting  man  asked  a 
missionary  who  had  been  telling  of  some  of  the 
great  difficulties  of  the  field  in  which  he  had 
been  at  work  just  what  kind  of  prospects  he 
really  felt  were  before  us  for  the  salvation  of 
the  world.  “As  bright  as  the  promises  of  God,” 
was  the  fine  instant  reply  of  the  worker.  That  is 
where  I  take  my  stand.  Christianity  is  in  the 
struggle.  Her  banner  is  unfurled.  The  sound 
of  the  bugle  is  in  her  ears.  The  tramp  of  the 
march  is  in  her  feet.  She  has  laid  conquest  to 
the  world.  I  believe  profoundly  the  world  will 
be  saved.  Not  only  do  I  believe  that  Christianity 
can  save  the  world,  but  I  believe  that  that  very 
ability  in  such  high  importance,  carries  also 
compulsion  that  runs  into  the  unavoidable  con- 


214 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


elusion  that  the  world  must  therefore  be  saved. 
There  is  no  alternative.  If  I  did  not  believe 
that,  my  enthusiasm  would  die  from  my  en¬ 
deavor.  I  could  not  urge  folks  to  join  themselves 
to  an  institution  that  was  on  this  earth  over¬ 
come  with  too  big  a  task.  In  a  day  such  as  this, 
when  enthusiasm  is  everywhere  stirred  by  great 
results,  I  could  not  call  for  interest  in  an  insti¬ 
tution  that  was  merely  “hanging  on  for  dear 
life.”  I  appreciate  the  fact  that  the  church  to¬ 
day,  measured  against  the  billion-faceted  world, 
is  a  small  handful.  I  know  we  need  genuine 
heroism  in  the  task.  Would  God  that  the 
preacher  would  arise  who  could  strike  the  note 
that  would  thrill  the  ranks  to-day  with  the  full 
sense  of  our  espousal — the  note  that  would 
capture  the  latent  heroism  of  our  youth :  young 
men  and  young  women  of  ambition  and  capacity, 
those  in  whose  hearts  and  minds  already  are 
forming  the  great  dreams  and  the  big  thoughts 
of  a  greater  to-morrow.  There  is  nothing  that 
will  stir  real  blood,  and  fire  genuine  zeal,  and 
call  out  all  the  superb  activity  of  the  very  best 
you  possibly  can  be  like  this  tremendous  conflict 
of  Christianity  in  its  siege  of  this  world. 

Allow  me  to  close  this  meditation  with  a  frank 
statement  of  my  personal  confidence  in  the 
triumph  of  our  cause.  The  cross  of  Jesus  Christ 
never  has  turned  back,  never  will  turn  back.  It 
is  to-day  increasingly  the  mightiest  force  on  this 


CAN  CHURCH  SAVE  WORLD?  215 


earth.  Our  Lord  is  still  in  militant  conquest 
here.  Not  yet  are  all  things  under  his  feet,  but 
we  see  evidences  of  his  constant  progress  all 
about  us.  Sometimes  the  tramp  of  his  march 
has  been  confused  with  tumbling  walls  and 
clashing  armies  and  toppling  thrones.  Some¬ 
times  the  dust  of  the  conflict  has  obscured  our 
vision.  But  through  it  all,  and  always  out  of  it 
all,  has  emerged  our  great  Master  ever  nearer 
victory.  This  world  can  be  saved.  It  would  be 
an  immeasurable  pity,  therefore,  if  for  any  lack 
on  our  part  it  should  not  be  saved.  There  may 
repose  the  key  of  a  crisis  in  even  the  least  of  our 
lives.  We  dare  not  risk  the  liability  of  our  own 
lack  of  interest  now. 

There  was  a  note  in  the  newspapers  the  finish¬ 
ing  day  of  the  great  Panama  Canal  that  I  have 
been  grateful  for  many  times.  It  may  have  been 
missed  by  the  multitude,  but  I  hope  it  has  been 
preserved  in  the  records  of  our  government.  The 
day  they  prepared  the  final  blast  on  the  Pacific 
end  of  the  great  canal  there  was  prepared  a 
mighty  group  blast,  whereby  twenty  tons  of 
dynamite  were  to  be  exploded.  The  great  charge 
was  planted  in  five  hundred  and  forty-one  holes, 
thirty  feet  deep.  When  the  electric  spark  was 
touched,  literally  hundreds  of  tons  of  mud  and 
rock  were  hurled  high  in  the  air.  The  great 
gap,  however,  was  not  quite  deep  enough  to  open 
a  sea  level  channel  to  low  tide.  An  ordinary 


216 


THE  EXPECTED  CHURCH 


workman  with  a  shovel  opened  a  small  trench. 
I  wish  I  knew  his  name.  I  don’t  know  that  it 
was  even  recorded.  That  little  hand-dug  trench 
of  an  unknown  workman  soon  became  a  fast 
running  stream,  and  then  a  raging  torrent  four 
hundred  feet  wide,  and  the  waters  of  the  great 
eager  ocean  ran  in  and  filled  the  excavation. 
The  waters  of  the  Pacific  washed  up  against  the 
solid  masonry  of  the  Miraflores  Locks,  and  by 
evening  the  steam  dredges  were  passing  through 
the  channel  for  the  first  time.  If  these  words  of 
mine  reach  any  soul  that  has  been  disheartened 
at  the  great  task  before  the  church,  I  hope  they 
may  plant  new  confidence  there.  The  church 
stands  firm  to-day.  The  glory  of  God  is  upon  it. 
The  nations  of  the  world  are  gravitating  cer- 
tainlv  about  the  standard  of  the  cross.  It  is 
established  on  the  tops  of  the  mountains  and  all 
the  world  is  turning  thither — 

“Let  every  kindred,  every  tribe, 

On  this  terrestrial  ball. 

To  him  all  majesty  ascribe. 

And  crown  him  Lord  of  all.” 


I 


Date  Due 

4  193 

s 

■  ?  2  0 

l 

fa  21  %' 

Mr  2  4  '41 

- 

M  y  if  *. 

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